Schools get by with $700m from community

Figures from the Ministry of Education show that despite tougher financial times, parents and communities contributed $712.8 million in 2008. Photo / Greg Bowker

In the last year parents and communities have propped up schools throughout the country, pumping $700 million into the nation's free education system.

Figures from the Ministry of Education show that despite tougher financial times, parents and communities contributed $712.8 million to their children's schools in donations and revenue in 2008.

This figure includes locally raised funds, fees from international students and investment income.

More than 150 state and integrated schools raised over $1 million and 15 of the top 25 schools - ranked according to the amount of money each raised - came from Auckland.

Sacred Heart College topped the list with $6,377,422 raised, while seven other Auckland schools were in the top 10. The South Island had just two schools among the top 25 for locally raised income.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Kate Gainsford said the figures were "shocking".

Ms Gainsford said there were high expectations from communities about what schools should be able to provide but these were not matched by Government resources.

"We hear a lot of rhetoric about how it's important to invest in education but in actual fact parents are the ones who are doing that."

Ms Gainsford said the ethos of free and fair education in New Zealand was hypocritical.

"Once upon a time we prided ourselves on saying we looked after young people in New Zealand and we didn't like the idea of privilege in your life deciding for you," she said.

"Perhaps we should be revisiting some of those basic tenets."

School Trustees Association president Lorraine Kerr said the figures were "not surprising" and schools were no longer fundraising for "nice things" but had to top up their curriculums and necessities.

"It says what we have been saying for at least the last three years, that it's time the Government stepped up and admitted schools are inadequately funded."

De La Salle College principal Brother Steve Hogan told the Weekend Herald 88 per cent of parents pay their children's' $700 attendance fees, which in state schools are met by the Government, and a voluntary $100 donation at the integrated decile 1 school in South Auckland.

But he said these fees barely covered the students' needs.

Education Minister Anne Tolley, who gained the portfolio late last year, said this year's Budget gave $300 million more to education, raising the total education spending to $10.8 billion a year.

A further $80.1 million was set aside to help schools to meet pressures on their day-to-day resources by adjusting the school operational grant for inflation.