Bay of Plenty homeschool parents say funding is not cutting it

Katrina Peake homeschools her five children aged between 5 and 13. Photo / Stephen Parker

Some Bay of Plenty parents are spending thousands out of their own pockets, just to educate their children from home. The homeschooling community in the region continues to flourish, yet some home educators are turning their sights on the Ministry of Education and saying the funding they are getting is only just covering the bare minimum. Reporter Caroline Fleming spoke to some of the parents doing away with the normal structure of schooling about what it is costing them.

Ex-homeschooler Sue King used to get up at 3am every day to deliver newspapers to cover the cost of homeschooling her children.

Now she joins a number of homeschool parents who say the funding provided by the Government is just simply not enough.

The Ministry of Education provides annual supervision allowances for homeschooling of $743 for one child, $632 for the second, $521 for the third, and $372 for all children after.

Deputy secretary of education system policy from the Ministry of Education Dr Andrea Schollmann said the homeschoolers allowance was a contribution towards the cost of educating a child and families made the choice to homeschool with the full knowledge of the costs.

Katikati mum King homeschooled her children from year one right through to 13 and said the funding was a "pittance" and almost "non-existent".

She said the funding hardly covered the cost of books her children required, especially as they grew older.

King used to deliver the newspaper around her neighbourhood in Katikati from 3am to 7am every morning, simply to help cover the costs of homeschooling.

"Every family had to have their own way of covering it."

Her family learned to live without "lavish things" and with all her children now in their 20s with masters degrees, she stands by her decision to homeschool as being the best thing for them.

Katrina Peake, a Rotorua mother who homeschools her five children, said she had heard of some parents getting part or even full-time jobs as well as homeschooling just to "make ends meet".

She said her family grew vegetables from the garden to save money and her son also did a paper run.

Peake's children ranged from 5 to 13 and she noticed that the older a child got, the more expensive curriculum materials were, yet the funding did not take this into account.

A Ministry of Education spokeswoman told the Rotorua Daily Post in a previous article that operational grant funding and staffing entitlements in mainstream schools were formula-driven, and many components were weighted by year level.

As a result, secondary schools would often receive more per-student funding than primary and intermediate Schools.

Schollmann said the homeschoolers allowance was not expected to cover all costs incurred at different ages.

Peake said the cost of things did leave her with "hard decisions to make" and she often had to weigh up whether they could afford things like music or sports lessons for the kids.

The Peake children. Photo / Stephen Parker

However, she said although more would be nice, she still appreciated what they did get and she did get to save money on things like school uniforms, technology and transport.

The last review of home education was in 2014, but this did not lead to a change in the level of allowance.

In the review findings, homeschool parents submitted that the amount of funding was too low, that funding should not be reduced for each subsequent child and that extra funding was required for children with special education needs.

The Ministry of Education response in the report was that it would explore options for increased funding in the 2016/17 budget round. However, this did not amount to anything.

Tauranga homeschool parent Jay Hart, who has two young children, said the funding did not cut it and that she was spending around $15,000 a year out of her own pocket.

She said it also concerned her that the funding was not adequately covering the number of special needs children in homeschooling.

The home education allowance was not higher for a child with additional learning support needs, but a parent could receive advice and guidance from the Ministry on educating them, Schollmann said.