In 1989, the Fourth Labour Government reformed the state (public) school system in what was known as the "Tomorrow's Schools" reforms. Blaming the amount of centralised bureaucracy for slipping school standards, the government disestablished the Department of Education, replacing it with the smaller Ministry of Education and moving the governance of state schools to their individual school communities. State schools are crown entities, meaning they are government-owned and retain the strong governmental and parliamentary oversight and control in common with other New Zealand crown entities. State schools are the most common in New Zealand. Charter schools were introduced to New Zealand by Educational Secretary Lesley Longstone under the National government. She had considerable experience