Private Schools Hold their Hands out Again

Private Schools Hold their Hands out Again

By John Minto QPEC National Chairperson

QPEC is highly critical of the report released today by private school lobbyists which claims to make out a case for extra government funding for private schools.

Private schools already receive $40 million each year from the government in subsidies.

To claim the students and parents would be better off if the government increased its funding to private schools just does not stack up.

Between 1994 and 2000 the National Party government increased subsidies to private schools by a staggering 220%.

Despite this we are not aware of a single private school which reduced its fees for parents.

Rather they used this “icing” on their cake to make themselves more desirable for wealthy parents and maintained their high fees and socially-cleansed enrolment policies to keep the great unwashed mass of students at bay.

Probably the wealthiest private school in the country, Kings College in Auckland, now receives $2million each year in icing from the government and yet just down the road from that school are seriously underfunded public schools which have Operations Grants which have not kept pace with inflation these past 15 years.

If private schools want government funding they must open their doors to all students on the same basis as any other school and drop their fees. If they do this then they should be fully operationally funded by the government.

As it is they are simply not interested in “average” kiwi students or children with special education needs. While they want to pick and choose in an anti-social way they should receive not a cent of government funding.

© Scoop Media