Labour turns sights on school donations

Schools that abolished the practice would receive additional Government funding

Labour hopes to limit schools asking for so-called “voluntary donations” from parents by giving schools that drop the practice an extra $150 per pupil at an estimated cost of $70 million.

The policy is in Labour’s new education policy which will be unveiled today and is similar to its 2014 policy, which offered $100 per student to schools that stopped donations.

However, it will not be enough to get all schools on board.

Labour estimates more than half of schools would take up the offer, mainly mid and low decile schools where the donations tended to be less than $150. The costing of $70 million was based on 450,000 students.

Labour leader Andrew Little said the education system was supposed to be free and accessible to everybody and there was concern about parents feeling pressured to fork out “voluntary donations” to bolster school coffers. The policy would end the donations for most parents.

“Under National, school donations have jumped by 50 per cent and they continue to rise due to National’s freeze on schools’ operational funding last year,” said Little.

Schools could still request parents pay for extra-curricular activities.

While schools can request fees for activities such as school camps, they are not allowed to charge fees or take action against those who do not pay the “donations”.

Ministry of Education data shows in 2015, the average donation at a decile one school was $85 ranging up to $294 at decile 10 schools. In 2016, some high decile schools in Auckland were charging more than $1000, such as Auckland Grammar, which got more than $2 million in fees.

Schools took about $109 million in donations in 2014 — up from $75 million in 2008. About half of that went to decile nine and ten schools. Schools also got $81.8 million in fees for extra-curricular activities and collected $42 million from other forms of fundraising.

The schools that took in the most were high decile schools in Auckland, such as Auckland Grammar ($2.2 million in 2015) and Epsom Girls’ Grammar ($2 million in 2014, dropping to $1.3 million in 2015).

Those schools have argued they need the donations to supplement Government funding and offer extra services, especially at high decile schools which get less funding. It is used to top up operational funding and pay for things such as support staff or equipment and resources.

That pressure is likely to have increased in the past year after the Government froze the operational funding and instead put extra funds into schools based on the number of disadvantaged students they had. This year’s Budget saw a 1.3 per cent increase across the board in operational funding.

Schools have long asked parents to put in extra money under both Labour and National governments — and in the past, schools have pressured parents to pay, stopping students undertaking activities such as the school ball if it was unpaid.

The Education Ministry has made it clear schools cannot force parents to pay or take action against students whose parents had not paid.

Former Education Minister Hekia Parata previously defended schools asking for donations, saying parents contributed just $1.80 for every $100 spent by the taxpayer on education.

The Government put an extra $1.1 billion into education in the last Budget, taking the total to $11.6 billion.

Little said its wider education package included plans to spend an extra $4 billion in education over the next four years, including $1.7 billion to boost funding levels in critical areas and deliver more teachers.

That would benefit early childhood centres and tertiary institutions, as well as parents and students.