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Auckland high schools under pressure to raise millions of dollars a year have joined forces to push the Government for more money.
The heads of 10 state secondary schools - from the North Shore and the Rodney district - will meet National education spokesperson Anne Tolley tomorrow and Education Minister Chris Carter late this month.
Northcote College principal Vicki Barrie analysed Ministry of Education data from 2006, which showed, on average, the group of schools raised 51 per cent of their "operational funding" from the community.
"Our communities are not aware of the extent of the shortfall," said Ms Barrie, whose school raised about $2.5 million last year.
Operational funding is the cost of running schools, excluding teacher salaries, with much going on running sports and cultural programmes and running and upgrading IT equipment.
The sources include hosting international students, fundraising drives, fees and family donations.
Ms Barrie said rising petrol and food costs made it more difficult.
"It's increasingly difficult to get voluntary donations and there's a real issue this year with the negative turn in the economy," she said. "We are already feeling it and know that we are going to suffer."
Schools got an "inadequate" 4 per cent rise in operational funding in last year's Budget.
A Government-commissioned review was conducted and Mr Carter indicated that advice will inform decisions in the upcoming Budget.
The debate about school donations is intense with some saying parents are being pressured into paying for education promised as "free". It has been claimed the money used to be for extras but it's now going on necessities.
A Herald story last year showed that nationally, parents paid close to $54 million more than a year earlier to help run their children's schools.
David Hodge, principal of the country's biggest school, Rangitoto College, said the group of North Shore schools provided world leading education but were "totally under resourced".
"If you look at the PISA studies, top students in New Zealand do every bit as well as top students internationally. We can hold our head up and say in English, maths and science 'our students are every bit as good as any students in the world'. "We are achieving that on the cheap - the Government for far too long has been taking it for granted."
Mr Hodge said his decile 10 school raised much of its $2 million a year in community funds through attracting international students, but it was becoming tougher.
"The pressure on schools to maintain and meet the expectations of their community is enormous," he said.
