High School Fees To Rise, Says Principal
THE SUNDAY AGE
Saturday July 2, 1994
HIGH schools will be forced to increase charges in order to maintain curriculums if proposals for school funding formulas are adopted, a secondary principal has warned.
The president of the Victorian Secondary Principals Association, Mr Peter Martin, said the State Government's planned Student Resource Index meant schools faced ``devastation". Small schools would close and welfare programs would be cut, he said.
Under the index, students would be funded individually by the Government, with each child allocated a specific dollar value to be allocated to the school they are attending.
The index was meant to be announced this month and introduced next year, but it has been delayed by controversy over how it will be calculated. It is likely to value children at between $2500 and $5000 each.
Mr Martin, a member of a Government panel overseeing the introduction of the index, said the Education Minister, Mr Don Hayward, wanted an index that provided equity between funding for primary and secondary students.
``If the current proposals for the index are introduced," Mr Martin said, ``more fees would be introduced and programs cut in secondary schools.
``The minister has said he is in favor of increasing funding to early childhood education. I can't see how he will do that under the index without cutting back on secondary schools.
``If Government funding is reduced, the only way we can maintain quality is to increase charges to parents. What you are talking about is parents having to pay teachers to maintain the curriculum."
Small schools would not have enough money to survive and welfare programs would be cut, Mr Martin said.
Mr David Ahern, a spokesman for Mr Hayward, said any criticism of the index was premature. ``The minister is overseas and is yet to see the report from the working party," Mr Ahern said.
The working parties set up by the Government to establish the index have failed to agree on a formula and are understood to be frustrated with the guidelines laid down by Mr Hayward.
They are split on a number of key questions, including whether the index should address the funding imbalance between primary and secondary schools, and whether it should cover the majority of school funding, as favored by the Government.
The parties are also undecided on what factors should attract extra funding under the index, including disability, economic disadvantage or language difficulties.
The president of the Victorian Principals Federation, Mr Geoff Head, also said plans for the index were in disarray. Mr Hayward's instruction that it not increase costs had prompted beliefs that increases for primary students would come at the expense of secondary schooling, he said.
Primary school principals have been lobbying heavily in favor of the new index. They believe there are major inequities between funding for primary and secondary schools that the index will address.
© 1994 THE SUNDAY AGE