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Education Minister Steve Maharey has been drawn into a spat at Feilding High School over unpaid fees, saying that children should not become a "football" between parents and schools over debt.
The Manawatu school has defended its tough stance at the start of the new school year, which saw it refusing to let about 70 students into class because their parents had outstanding fees from earlier years.
On the first day of school, about 70 students were told their timetables would be withheld until fees, totalling about $6000, were paid.
The fees covered materials used for schoolwork. The school is entitled to charge parents for these costs.
Thirty-nine pupils left school for the day to resolve the issue with their parents. The rest stayed at school and were supervised.
All but two have now returned to classes. One has left to join the workforce, while Year 12 student Cheyenne Rakatau, 16, was expected back yesterday.
Principal Roger Menzies is unrepentant about his approach.
He says the issue is more about the principle than the amount of money. He told the Herald on Tuesday: "If you don't pay your power bill, they cut your power."
Mr Menzies said schools were underfunded and ideally the school would have more government funding so parents had no fees.
Mr Maharey said that while he sympathised with schools that were owed money, the action taken at Feilding High School "just can't happen that way".
"No child should be at home as a result of that [debt]," he told Radio New Zealand.
"By law young people have to be in school learning and they shouldn't be used as a football between the parents and the schools."
The Ministry of Education was right to step into the dispute at Feilding to ensure children were back in the class, he said.
Education was now more complex and technological than ever before, and therefore more expensive.
Government funding had increased by 22 per cent over the past seven years, but there was always a need for more, he said.
"We are under pressure as a country to carry on trying to match the expectations of education and that is putting pressure on parents to run sausage sizzles and to try and raise money.
"My job is to carry on trying to lift that investment."
School Trustees Association general manager Ray Newport said schools were frustrated about the levels of funding.
He agreed that significant amounts of money had been poured into compulsory education in recent years, but much of it had been taken up by hiring more teachers and teacher pay increases.
"It doesn't matter how many teachers you put into the system, it doesn't matter how much you pay teachers ... the money boards get to run their schools is inadequate."
Independent research showed that the ability to get more money out of parents was plateauing, he said.
"You can't keep putting fees up. You put them up and you get fewer parents paying."
- NZPA
