Gambling cash keeps many schools afloat

By STUART DYE

Increasing numbers of schools rely on gambling money to finance a decent standard of education.

Grants from community trusts have become one of the main sources of money for schools, which say Government funding is inadequate

The findings are in a study into school finances which has found that effective schools cannot continue to provide students with their present standard of education if they rely on Government money alone.

The three-year study, by the Council for Educational Research, examines the financial management of 18 effective schools.

A report out this week documents results from the first year of research.

It shows schools rely on money from pokies for projects such as libraries, astro-turf pitches, computers and new buildings.

"I'm going to capitalise on it, but philosophically, I wonder if I should be doing this," a principal told researchers.

Trusts spoken to by the Herald confirmed huge increases in the numbers of schools applying for and being offered grants.

The Charity Gaming Association said the amount of money going to schools had doubled in the past few years.

The association, which represents about 50 per cent of gaming trusts, said $25 million had gone to schools in the last financial year.

But that was a conservative estimate as it did not include money for sports equipment.

Association executive director Lynne Fletcher, who also sits on her local school board of trustees, said if the money was not given to schools it would go somewhere else.

"The money is for vital things, like extra text books, so schools have to do it. They would be shooting themselves in the foot otherwise."

Schools were not forcing people to gamble and 98 per cent of gamblers enjoyed the pastime with no problems.

"How else are schools going to function when the funds aren't there?" Ms Fletcher asked.

The study found that schools were far more reliant on non-government sources of finance than they were when they were decentralised with the introduction of community governance in 1989.

The latest research backs what the School Trustees Association and schools have been telling the Government for some time.

Association president Chris Haines said operation grant funding was not keeping up with the cost of delivering high-quality education.

He said the research also showed that schools were responding to the Government's call to customise teaching more closely to individual student needs, rather than taking a "one size fits all" approach. But that work was increasingly reliant on non-government funding.

All schools looked at in the study employed more teaching staff than their Government staff entitlement allowed. The cost of the extra staff, on average, absorbed a third of each school's operation grant.

As well, every school said that good administration staff were essential to the healthy financial management of their school, yet the increasing cost of support staff placed pressure on funding.

In most countries, schools were funded by a combination of government and community resources.

But in New Zealand the pendulum was in danger of having swung too far one way, the report concluded.

Phil Smith, president of the Post-Primary Teachers' Association, said the report showed the need for a review of education funding and, more substantially, a review of the extra costs schools have had to cope with in the past few years.