UPDATED 10.44am: The Government's being accused of just throwing money at charter schools to ensure their success, giving them up to four times as much funding as their state school counterparts.

Labour's education spokesman Chris Hipkins says charter schools are getting an unfairly high amount of Government funding - even when compared to how much it costs to set up a new state school.

"There's often costs associated with setting up a new school, but the reality is here with the charter schools even taking those things into consideration, they're being funded significantly more generously than equivalent state schools would get."

Hipkins argues too much taxpayer money is going to propping up the charter schools, while many state schools have to rely on public donations.

"I think the taxpayer wants to know that every dollar that goes into education is going into educating kids. They can't have that reassurance when it comes to charter schools because obviously charter schools are allowed to make a profit."

But ACT Party leader David Seymour refuted such claims, saying the policy clearly states partnership schools will be funded at exactly the same rate as state schools.

"If Chris Hipkins can't understand how schools are funded during set-up, let's hope he never gets near the government benches.

"His claim that partnership schools take money away for profit is fatuous. Is he suggesting school kids should not use pencils, computers and uniforms made by profitable companies?"