The idea that public schools are struggling financially can be a hard pill to swallow for parents.
It's easy to look in as an observer and wonder why a public school, which gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the government every year, is constantly asking for donations and requesting fees for various activities.
We supposedly have "free education" in New Zealand but I am hearing teachers and principals saying more frequently that free education is a thing of the past.
In many schools I've come across, there is a growing deficit between the money a school is given and its operational costs.
Legally, a public school cannot request mandatory fees, but they have to try to make up that deficit somewhere, and donations are their best option.