Schools should “put the heat on” government

13 February 2007

Schools should “put the heat on” government – not parents

It is deeply disappointing to see schools such as Fielding High School “put a bit of heat on” parents to pay school fees rather than the school “putting the heat on” the government to fund schools properly.

Thirty students at Fielding High School walked out of the school last week after the school principal Roger Menzies admits he “put a bit of heat on” parents to pay school fees.

Schools should be working to educate students and foster positive relationships with parents and the community instead of effectively becoming tax gatherers for the government.

The Fielding High School situation reflects the huge problem schools throughout the community face in providing a decent quality of education for children with inadequate government funding.

QPEC organised a seminar to examine resourcing issues for all areas of public education. The summary of the school sector indicates that substantial funding is needed to make free quality education a reality for our children.

QPEC will be looking to the 2007 budget to deliver this.

Summary of QPEC Resourcing of Quality Education Summit – 22nd November 2006

(the full report is on our website at www.qpec.org.nz)

School Issues
 Government funding has been decreasing as a percentage of school income over recent years.

1995 2005 2005 percentage from parents/community
Primary 90.5% 88.9% 11.1%
Secondary 85.8% 82.8% 17.2%

 “Local fundraising” (School fees/“voluntary donations”, fundraising and foreign fee-payers) has increased significantly under the Labour government

1999 2005
Primary (per child) $301 $474
Secondary (per child) $750 $987

 From 1995 to 2004 government funding of schools rose by 36.7% in real terms while local funding increased by a gross amount of 88.7%

 The government review of the school Operations Grant is based on the current funding model which is seriously flawed by being based too heavily on student numbers rather than educational need.

 There have been large increases (300%) in support staff employed in schools since 1989 which have been paid from the Operations Grant and locally raised funds. There is no specific government funding to support these staff increases.

 Operations Grant increases have borne no relation to inflation. The increase announced in 2006 was 2.3% while inflation is running at 3.5% – 4.0%

 Schools are facing large financial pressures from parent expectations while costs of such things as support staff and ICT have mushroomed.

 Boards have had to meet 100% of the costs of ICT (computers etc) until recent times, and even now, 75% is paid by schools/parents and only 25% is paid by government funding. Some of this 25% is of an “in-kind” nature. (eg. Microsoft deal for schools to access software)

 Research shows that the ability of schools to raise funds by way of school donations has plateaued.

 Many schools now report that parents are resisting paying school “donations”.

 Extra community pressures are now on schools with the expectation for “personalised learning” for students. This generates huge pressure on staff to become “super-teachers”.

 Special needs funding has decreased by 3.49% from 2001 to 2006.

 There is research evidence that suggests that many schools cannot support existing programmes on Operations Grant funding alone.

 There is research that suggests that schools are having to make trade offs that impact on student learning in order to make ends meet.

 There is evidence to suggest that despite the additional funding received by schools in low income communities from the government they are still well behind schools in high income communities in available per student funding.

ENDS

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