Parents pitch in to work off children's fees

By STUART DYE

Parents at a Waikato school are mowing lawns, painting and helping with administration because they cannot afford to pay their children's fees.

The principal of Hamilton's Fraser High School, Martin Elliott, said he let some parents drip-feed school fees or work at the school if they had a particular skill.

"Many parents argue that education is free, but that's like believing the tooth fairy will come when your tooth falls out," Mr Elliott said.

"We're a non-profit organisation and we're doing the best for their kids, but it's not fair that some parents freeload while other parents have paid the fees."

Schools ask parents for "donations" to cover the cost of items such as copyright and photocopying, activity fees and mailing newsletters, but they cannot legally force parents to pay.

The Government has been coming under pressure from parents, principals and trustees to increase the amount given to schools for their operations grants.

But Education Minister Trevor Mallard told the Herald he was satisfied the grants were adequate.


A Council for Educational Research report issued last month, which examined the finances of 18 effective schools, concluded that they could not continue to provide their standard of education if they relied on Government money alone.

The School Trustees' Association, which commissioned the study, said it was the evidence needed to prove schools were under-funded.

But Mr Mallard said the study was "inadequate and deficient" because it ignored extra Government spending on more teachers and literacy and numeracy initiatives.

"The study failed to acknowledge that pressure was relieved through the $200 million extra staffing allocation," said Mr Mallard.

"We had to make a decision as to whether this [extra staffing] was the priority, and we were told it was by schools and trustees."

The Council for Educational Research admitted the study might not take into account all spending on education but said the recent report was on the first year of a three-year analysis.

Mr Mallard has previously said operations grants make up only about a quarter of the money the Government gives to schools.

Targeting the other money rather than bulk-funding provided better curriculum support and professional development, he says. School Trustees' Association president Chris Haines said the organisation was planning to crank up its campaign for more money by encouraging schools to petition their local MPs and Mr Mallard.

It was aiming to get an increase in next year's Budget.

"We will keep putting on pressure as much as we can because the study shows what schools are up against," said Mr Haines.

National Party education spokesman Bill English said the problem was the targeting of funding, instead of giving schools more control over their finances.

"The money is all going on teachers' salaries or the minister's pet projects. Some of the money is then actually useless to the schools."

Mr English stopped short of promising National would guarantee more money for schools, but said he would "re-prioritise" funding.