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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1995 Week 11 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 2927 ..

MS FOLLETT (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the ACT is not alone in encountering problems with voluntary parental contributions in the school system. Like their State counterparts, ACT schools face increasing funding pressures. Schools are forced to rely more and more on parental monetary contributions to fund the provision of basic educational equipment, texts and materials. However, voluntary contributions and school fees have become a contentious issue, with schools and parents divided on many of the key questions, including whether the contributions should be payable at all.

The Australian Council of State School Organisations earlier this year noted that parents throughout Australia are being pressured to pay more in voluntary contributions, that contributions are being misrepresented as quasi-compulsory, and that students are being discriminated against for not paying their school fees. But schools are facing a considerable dilemma. On the one hand they are being squeezed through budget constraints, and on the other hand they are required to keep pace with developing educational programs and to embrace new departmental education initiatives in areas such as information technology.

I think it is important at an early stage, Mr Speaker, to acknowledge that some 98 per cent of the funding needed to run schools and their programs is provided by government, so it is the overwhelming bulk of funding for schools. The remaining 2 per cent includes voluntary parental fees as well as other transitory forms of parental payments like excursion fees. The committee was advised by the Department of Education that to replace the voluntary fee component would cost government between $4m and $6m if allowance were made for equity between schools and for the money collected by P and C associations on behalf of schools. We accepted that figure, Mr Speaker, after some debate upon it.

I think it is a matter of record that the two major parties differed markedly in their election time responses on the question of voluntary fees. Whilst the Liberals canvassed the idea of making fees compulsory, Labor proposed abolishing them altogether and replacing these funds with an addition to the education budget. As we have heard, that addition would have had to be of the order of $4m to $6m.

Mr Speaker, following the committee's inquiry, neither of those courses of action is recommended in our report. The clear majority view put to the committee, including views put by the P and C association, the Australian Education Union and the schools themselves, was that the parental contribution scheme should be retained and its voluntary nature re-emphasised. However, there were considerable concerns about the scheme as it operates. In light of the concerns expressed before and during the committee's inquiry, I believe that the inquiry was indeed timely.

Some 82 submissions were received from schools, school boards, P and C associations, and individuals and organisations within the ACT community. There was a clear plea from most of the 70 or so schools which made submissions to the committee that government per capita funding, in their view, is not enough to allow schools to offer viable, educationally sound courses in optional areas. At the same time, Mr Speaker, there was an overriding concern that the voluntary contribution scheme is not fully meeting the needs of schools which have come to rely on these contributions and that the rate of parental contributions has fallen significantly in recent years.

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