Frontline Blog for stuff.co.nz
16th July 2009

I don't pay the voluntary donation at the local high school where my son attends. I get a reminder in the mail each term that the $250 remains unpaid but it goes in the recycling bin.

I'm sick of schools putting more pressure on parents than they do on the government for the money needed for "free" education.

Depending on which school your children attend you could receive regular letters from the school, as I do, or regular mailed invoices; insisting on payment at the time of enrolment; names of paying parents listed in the school newsletter as a way of naming and shaming those who haven't; sending students home at the start of the year to get donations for the previous year; withholding the final school report till the parent comes down for a "discussion" about money owed; withholding the school magazine; preventing students attending the school ball or calls and letters from debt collectors.

All this is bullying, there's no other word for it. Schools have become creative bullies of parents who for whatever reason don't pay what are supposed to be voluntary donations.

Schools that set debt collectors on parents should set them on the Minister of Finance instead. (And yes it would mean increases in taxation for those not paying their fair share)

The worst of the bullies are former private schools which have integrated into the state system. These schools couldn't survive financially so via the integration process they get the government to pay for the teacher salaries and the costs associated with the day to day running of the school. They are then only allowed to request payment of Attendance Dues for the costs associated with maintaining school buildings and grounds which remain in their private ownership.

On top of this they request (demand is a better word in many cases) the payment of voluntary donations and the pressure is piled on parents to pay. Rathkeale College in Masterton is the latest school bully. The high-handed arrogance of the school board and principal were on public display after a parent complained the school suggested she use the future sale of her house to provide payment of "voluntary" donations of $13,000. In the inverted world he lives in he claims the parent is "morally wrong".

Similar practices abound at recently integrated schools which want to remain private but with government funding so use forced donations of many thousands of dollars each year to keep out unwanted kids, maintain smaller class sizes and build better facilities than at local public schools.

The Ministry of Education each year approves the attendance dues but leaves the school to set its own level of donation. It's all a charade to maintain privilege for the better off with parents and taxpayers left at the sharp end.

We are better off without these schools. If they sink as private schools they should be nationalised by the government rather than bailed out in private hands. Don't these schools support market values?

Meanwhile at school assemblies up and down the country school principals condemn bullying in every form, physical, verbal and emotional while at the same time they explore ever more inventive ways to force parents to pay for their children's public education.

Kids are not stupid. They can often spot hypocrisy easier than most adults. What a school principal does speaks much louder than what they tell kids in assembly.

The values Rathkeale claims to represent and instil in students are being honoured in the breach by the school management.