Budget to rule on fee-paying schools

The continued €95m-a- year government funding of fee-paying schools will not be decided until the budget, according to Education Minister Ruairí Quinn.

But his department strongly hinted that the entire scrapping of the investment is unlikely because of the increased cost that would result from schools being forced to close.

Mr Quinn’s Labour Party colleague, public transport minister Alan Kelly, said at the weekend he thinks the day of being able to pay the money to private schools “is going to come to an end”.

Although this is Labour policy, a spokesperson for Mr Quinn said there is a difference between party policy and what is in the Programme for Government.

“This is a matter for the budget and will be the subject of Cabinet discussions and a Cabinet decision,” she said.

A subsequent Department of Education statement said that if fee-charging schools close, there would be additional costs for the State in terms of an increased teacher allocation, and capitation and other grants for students who move to schools in the free education scheme.

Mr Quinn has said he will publish details of schools’ use of state funding and fees income as soon as it is available to him, which is likely to be later this month. The 56 fee-paying schools have been asked by the department to outline how they use the income.

“I want to ascertain whether they have large amounts of cash they are using for extra teachers or whether, in fact, they are paying off large mortgages for school buildings,” Mr Quinn told an Oireachtas committee last month.

Although €3m — around 0.5% — of the department’s capital funding last year was invested in fee-paying schools, no new applications for capital works are being accepted from them.

This year’s staffing cut removed around 50 teachers from the sector but their representatives say any further cuts will force closures and could add to Mr Quinn’s education budget instead of reducing it. The Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which represents free and fee-paying religious-run secondary schools, said many that charge fees would close if state funding is lost.

“That means some or all of their 255,000 students would have to attend schools in the free education system.

“This will mean more capitation grants being paid by the department and more teachers to be paid because of the preferential staffing ratios,” said JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly.

He said language about elitism and “educational apartheid” is unhelpful and does not take account of the wide range of schools in the fee-paying system.

“For parents who want their children taught in a school of a minority faith, he said, there is little or no choice but to attend one of the 22 Protestant fee-paying schools.

“All those with children in fee-paying schools are making sacrifices to send them there and forcing them to close will mean the Government having to meet some of that investment instead,” he said.

Q & A

Q. How many fee-paying schools are there in the country?

A. 56 secondary schools charge fees but still get state funding, mainly towards the cost of paying teachers. They are schools that chose not to join the free second-level education system set up 45 years ago.

Q. Are they funded the same?

A. No, they received €95m in the last school year, €86.6m of it for teachers’ pay. But the funding for teachers at fee-paying schools has been cut twice since 2009, including cuts this autumn by Mr Quinn. This means they now must have 21 students for a mainstream teacher to be funded by the Department of Education, instead of a 19:1 ratio at other schools. The net effect is that a 630-student fee-paying school is paid the salaries of 30 teachers, whereas a school wholly funded by the State can employ 33 teachers.

Q. Why is this issue making news now?

A. The Labour Party passed a motion at its annual conference in April to have the State subsidy phased out over four years and the party’s junior minister Alan Kelly suggested at the weekend this should happen.

Q. Will it?

A. No decision is likely to be announced until Budget 2013 in December but Mr Quinn has said he will publish the outcome of his department’s analysis when it is available. He announced in last December’s budget he would review how much fee income the schools raise and what it is used for, although it was estimated at around €100m by An Bord Snip Nua in 2009.

While most use it predominantly to hire additional teachers, to offer smaller classes and wider subject choices, it may also contribute towards building and other projects.