School stealth tax should be expelled

The state doesn’t provide enough money to run schools.

That's bad enough...but the way it does this is worse, much worse.

Even this year's increased grant of €225 per pupil per year is derisory – or not enough to buy a Snickers’ bar per day, as one frustrated principal said a few years ago.

(His comment still stands as even less money is paid today, after inflation).

And so school administrators, who have so many better things to be doing, are forced to pursue parents to ‘cough up’ and meet the shortfall.

They have to embarrass parents into paying up by sending notes home with their children, withholding services such as lockers or access to second hand book sales. Or in some cases, taking a funding shortcut by asking parents to clean the schools instead of paying cleaners.

So why can’t they just admit that they need the money? Why do they have to ludicrously call this badly-needed funding a ‘voluntary contribution’, implying that it’s really not a big deal if parents don’t pay.

The explanation lies in the constitution under ‘fundamental rights’(Article 42.4): “The State shall provide for free primary education… “

Parents should not have to pay for primary education. And by not paying for the full running costs of schools, the Government is in breach of the constitution. Or at least it is, unless it can find a loophole.

And so it has come up with what it thinks is a loophole and covers its shame with a legal ‘fig leaf’.

If they make schools pretend the money they need from parents is ‘voluntary’ then schools could be considered fully funded as the constitution requires - because nobody is forcing parents to cough up.

Never mind the fact that this makes the money harder to collect, has school principals run ragged in a  dysfunctional merry-go-round and drives a wedge between teachers and parents, especially those in poorer families.

There are so many contemptible things politicians do, but this damaging stealth tax remains one of the worst.