The cost of Free Education.

byhookorbycrook

SerialComplaint wrote: »

There is very little cake around these days (except maybe at the cake sale fundraiser). Schools should not be dependant on fundraising for basic services. We need to keep this in mind.

Where the school does request voluntary contributions, they should be publishing accounts to show exactly where the money goes to.

Yes we should not have to fundraise, collect Tesco tokens etc, but that's the way it is. Our school publishes accounts and a full explanation is given to the parents at the parent-assoc. meeting each year.

parsi

crabfeet wrote: »

Why should parents have to get involved in findraising. I do my fundraising by working and paying taxes. Why should I have to pay twice for the same service?
Article 42.4 of the Constitution.
"The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public good requires it, provide other educational facilities or institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation."

Free means you do not pay.

That's the crux.

Free meant that you didn't have to pay fees. It was a reaction against paid-for schooling which meant that only those who could cough up tuition fees had education. Of course even in the tuition paying schools there still are voluntary contribs, uniform costs and the like.

Interesting article on Australia http://www.bobinoz.com/blog/3335/cost-of-living-in-australia-school-fees/

Jo King

thesimpsons wrote: »

ya we all know about the free education and free public healthcare we are all paying for through our taxes but guess what, this little country just doesn't deliver.

Free primary education is a Constitutional right. Free healthcare isn't.

thesimpsons

Jo King wrote: »

Free primary education is a Constitutional right. Free healthcare isn't.

no your right education is supposed to be free and we do pay for our healthcare through our taxes and PRSI and the Health Insurance Levy. We just can't access this healthcare cos hospitals can't cope with the demands on them. I don't have medical card, pay all my taxes since I started working many years ago and thankfully don't have great need to medical care apart from the odd broken bone on the kids. But when I bring a kid with an obviously broken arm to A&E and have to wait for 7 hours for them to xray it and agree that its broken - then something is seriously wrong with our healthcare system which I do pay for. my kids will still get an education even if I don't pay the vol contrib but even with euros in my pocket I still can't access a healthcare system.

Ayla

I was talking to my neighbor about this the other day - she has 4 kids (1 in secondary school, the others in primary), and she quoted me the costs associated with September for each of her kids. Dear god! Just as well we're planning on homeschooling ours!

A big point she brought up was the way in which the "voluntary" contributions were sought...the kids are going on a school trip & instead of just coming out & saying "this trip will cost €x" the school asks for a "voluntary contribution" to cover it. I know it's to protect those families that can't afford it, but then why do they hound the kids in front of the class if they haven't turned their VC in?

I know for sure that if my girls wind up in the education system (i.e.: if homeschooling doestn't work out) then the school won't be humiliating my child in front of her peers!

There are loads of ways to reduce the costs of running the education system, and there's no reason to require parents to pay loads for uniforms, books & copying. This is yet another case of a system run amuck :rolleyes:

crabfeet

parsi wrote: »

That's the crux.

Free meant that you didn't have to pay fees. It was a reaction against paid-for schooling which meant that only those who could cough up tuition fees had education. Of course even in the tuition paying schools there still are voluntary contribs, uniform costs and the like.

Interesting article on Australia http://www.bobinoz.com/blog/3335/cost-of-living-in-australia-school-fees/

That is not the case. The way most schools operate is by the voluntary body establishes a school and seeks grant aid. The voluntary body is supposed to make up the shortfall from its own resources. The condidtion of seeking the grant aid is that no fee is charged. In the typical case the parish priest establishes a school and rather than use parish funds to make up the shortfall, uses various devices to bring in funds.
If these people set up schools and don't make the investment from their own resources they should close up and not indulge in trying to bully parents into paying for something which the parent has a right to expect to be free.
trying to humiliate children so that their parent give money to a school is despicable and heaven help the teacher, principal, board of management and parish priest if it is tried on my son.
They can pass around the plate in the church if they want a voluntary donation.
Free primary education is a constitutional imperative. In a choice between providing for free primary education and any other expenditure including health, free primary education must be selected.