Integrated schools breach funding rules

“Up to 60 integrated schools will be signing off accounts for the 2004 year with a tag from the Audit Office saying they have broken the law,” says National Party Education spokesman Bill English.

“In the past it has been accepted practice for school boards to use locally raised funds to improve or expand school property. Dozens of schools have raised money for new buildings this way.

“However, the Audit Office has found these schools are in breach of a law which requires them to get Education Ministry permission for any money spent through the school accounts on buildings.

“Schools were not informed that this would be an issue until after their accounts had been filed.

“This change has the potential to fundamentally change the way integrated schools can use their privately raised funds.

“An integrated school will now have to go through a bureaucratic nightmare of getting permission from the Ministry to spend their own money, or set up separate trust accounts to avoid state control.

“Either way, this is another move that fits Labour’s policy of more and more central control over schools. National intends to give schools more independence and less bureaucratic oversight,” Mr English says.

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