Private schools fail to keep lid on fees

Most parents are paying more for private schools this year despite a $35 million government funding boost to make them more affordable.

The Government announced the increase for private schools over four years in last year's Budget, taking annual funding to more than $42m.

After the announcement, Education Minister Anne Tolley's office said the extra $35m would make private schools more affordable for parents.

However, the executive director of the Independent Schools of New Zealand, Deborah James, said all schools in her organisation – which represents 80 per cent of private school pupils – had increased fees by an average of 3.5 per cent on last year.

The new funding was to compensate for the lack of an increase in government funding in the previous nine years. Inflation and growth in roll numbers meant there had been a 42 per cent decrease in real funding, she said.

"Independent schools have had to cut back on developments, restrict expenditure and keep fees increases to an absolute minimum to ensure that parents were not unnecessarily penalised by a government that took more in GST off their fees than it returned to the schools in grants," Ms James said.

The additional funding equated to about $300 per pupil each year. Twenty-five per cent of the new money went toward paying for low-income families to send their children to private schools.

Even with the additional funding, private schools saved taxpayers about $230 million each year as the state did not have to meet the full cost of educating their pupils, she said.

ACT deputy leader and Associate Education Minister Heather Roy would not say whether the fee rises were acceptable, but said they were not surprising given the lack of new funding in the previous nine years.

The Dominion Post contacted most private schools in the lower North Island, and other prominent New Zealand private schools, to obtain their fees. Two replied.

Wellington's Queen Margaret College increased its fees by 4 per cent since last year. The base tuition fee per student this year was $12,819, against $12,326 in 2009.

At King's College in Auckland, year 13 tuition fees rose from $19,872 in 2009 to $20,533 this year.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Kate Gainsford said higher private school fees reflected the growing cost of education.

State schools now needed a similar funding boost.

The speed with which National boosted private education funding reflected the Government's priorities, she said.

Community Learning Association Through Schools president Maryke Fordyce said it was frustrating to see that, even though private schools were getting more in government funding, they were charging parents more for tuition fees.

In the May Budget, adult and community education in schools had funding slashed from $16 million to just under $3m.

"You are taking away from the poor to give to the perceivably rich," Mrs Fordyce said.

- © Fairfax NZ News