Are Church schools cost effective?

Church schools have been complaining that they are finding it difficult to make ends meet. The government is currently subsidising them to the tune of €43.2 million euros per annum, which covers all staff costs and an additional 10% over and above salaries. However, apparently this is not enough for them to make ends meet and as a result the "voluntary donation" has been raised by most Church schools on the island.

"Voluntary Donation" - what a euphemism! From this point onwards I shall refer to them as fees, because I find that ridiculous term to be insulting. I used to attend a Church school myself up to around 20 years ago and I have a very clear memory of a particular nun who used to visit our class regularly and read out the names of those children whose parents had not paid the donation. The poor girls whose names were called were mortified and there is no doubt that they went home to beg their parents to cough up the dough in order to spare them future humiliation.

Fees charged for attending Church Schools have increased dramatically this year. To mention some examples, St Dorothy's Junior School charged €420 last year, but that has gone up by a hefty 43% to €600 this year. St Monica, on the other hand, raised its fees from €360 to €450 (an increase of 25%), while St Augustine increased charges from €300 to €450 (an increase of 50%).

It kind of makes you wonder where all the money goes, does it not?

I send my children to a private school which does not get any government subsidies. The school is very open about its expenses, making it clear that salaries account for approximately 85% of total school costs. I would therefore assume that this is the case for Church Schools and that therefore by subsidising salary costs and 10% over that, the government is contributing 95% of school costs.

Therefore the fees that Church schools are charging should cover that final 5%, because the taxpayer is already coughing up the other 95%.I suggest that you pull out a calculator and run through some figures with me.

Private schools charge different fees according to the age of the child. I happen to have a child who has just started junior school, another who is half way through and a third who is right at the end. For the sake of this calculation I will average out their fees.

Hence if you take the average of €700 per term, the total cost of schooling a young child privately is €2,100 per annum (fees rise steeply in secondary school).

Private schools manage to make ends meet on these fees, which are used to fund 100% of all costs, including the interest on loans taken out for capital expenditure projects like school refurbishment.

So if a Church School gets 95% of its costs funded, what is a reasonable "donation" for it to ask? Simple, 5% of €2100 - this is €105 per annum.

So I ask St Dorothy's and other Church schools - what on earth are you doing with the money that the government is giving you? That is money that is taken out of each and every one of our pockets and we clearly deserve an explanation regarding how it is possible that you, who in most cases are not even burdened with property loans (and the associated interest), cannot make ends meet when private schools are coping.

I would like to point out to the administrations of schools such as St Dorothy's that if €600 only covers 5% of costs, then private schools would need to charge €12000 per annum to cover 100% of costs. Let me repeat - twelve thousand euros per annum. If you do not believe me, work it out for yourselves.

So what are we to conclude from this little mathematical exercise? Well, without beating around the bush I have to say that it is either a case of extreme inefficiency or else these schools are being run to make a profit.

After all, if St Dorothy's School has 755 students and 600 pay fees, then the school receives €360,000 every year over and above the money it receives from government. This is money that is it not accounting for in any way whatsoever.

Do they seriously expect us to believe that the annual expenditure to run a school with 755 students is €7.2 million euros per annum? I repeat - seven point two million euros per annum. (If you cannot work it out, let me spoonfeed you. If €360,000 is required to finance 5% of costs, then the total costs are 7.2 million)

Clearly this does not make sense and something must be done about it. Otherwise let's face it, the only conclusion we can reach is that it makes more sense for government to fund private schools than Church schools, cause in private schools you get more bang for your buck.