Hon Bill English
National Education Spokesman

25 August 2004

Schools fundraising to stay afloat

National's Education spokesman Bill English says the Government is only just keeping schools afloat.

"But school deficits are being dwarfed by $500 million raised by parents and local communities," he says.

Figures just released show that more than one third of schools ran at a loss last year, with the average secondary school deficit increasing to $95,000.

"But deficits would be much higher if parents weren't out holding cake stalls and selling raffle tickets to meet the shortfall," he says.

Figures obtained by Mr English show that in 2002 schools raised $473 million through fundraising, trading sales, international students and the collection of fees and donations.

"The inflexibility of the current funding formula has left schools to raise almost half a billion dollars in order to meet local needs," he says.

"The government is spending millions on one-off projects designed for political profile when they should be spreading the money around to take the pressure of parents".

Ends

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