King said government schools depend on parents’ contributions to provide activities that enrich their children’s curriculum. Without them, learning can be “quite rancid and beige,” he said.
“Learning is free, teaching is free, but experiences are not, it costs money,” King said. “Schools receive a budget with provisions for staff and minimal maintenance of facilities, but everything above that has to be paid for out of the school budget and that comes from local funds.” .
But Gail McHardy, executive director of Parents Victoria, said schools were making a mistake in resorting to urging parents to dive into their pockets. He said public schools should not pressure parents to pay more to support their children’s education, even if the school has no funds.
“It’s important for schools to be transparent with parents about their expenses, but playing the card of despair and pressuring parents back to pay is not helpful, because each family will have a different financial situation,” McHardy said.
The petition exposes the built-in underfunding of government schools compared to non-government schools with better resources, McHardy said.
“The only way to deal with it is for the state and federal governments to fix the SRS [schooling resource standard] for public schools, because there is a total imbalance and the public is not asleep, it is awake. “
The Victorian president of the Australian Federation of Directors, Tina King, said government schools depend on parental contributions for many activities. Credit: Jason South
The school resource standard is an estimate of the amount of public funding a school needs to meet the educational needs of its students and forms the basis for funding for state and Commonwealth education. Under the current agreement, Victorian schools receive less than 90% of this funding per student and are on track to increase to 95% by 2029. Non-government schools receive more than their SRS needs and are on track. to reach 100%.
Glen Eira College asked the parents for a voluntary payment of $ 140 last year to be used for “general contributions,” facility maintenance, and a building fund.
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“Your child will not be at a disadvantage if you do not make a voluntary contribution,” the school said. “All records of voluntary contributions are kept confidential, as well as your decision on whether or not to make a contribution.”
University mother Susannah Farfor said it was devastating to think the school might have to cut back on popular programs that had been set up for 10 years, such as student lunch clubs in robotics and stock trading. .
“Teachers work hard to provide a very engaging environment,” Farfor said.
He said the drop in parents ’payments followed two years in which the school had struggled to raise funds through parties due to COVID-19 blockades.
Farfor said paying a voluntary contribution to the school was like “paying it forward.”
“The facilities, programs and other activities that the students enjoy were funded with contributions from previous families,” he said.
A department spokesman said all Victoria government schools are fully funded to ensure all students have free access to the required curriculum.
“The Victorian government recognizes that parental payments make a valuable contribution to enriching a student’s educational experience and enabling schools to offer a wide range of programs and opportunities to their communities,” the spokesman said.
“Schools can continue to ask for voluntary financial contributions from parents to support their schools and their programs.”
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