'Fee-paying schools say many parents scrimp and save to send their children, making huge sacrifices along the way," according to a recent article by Peter McGuire about private schools in The Irish Times .
I am a parent of three such children, two girls and a boy. I think we are supposed to pretend that we also scrimp and save and make huge sacrifices. But we don’t, and we have never pretended to. Like a good many parents with children in private schools, my ex-husband and I earn good money, and we choose to spend some of this on fee-paying schools.
I’m fed up with the constant sniping at privately educated children. Neither my ex-husband nor I was born into wealth, and both of us are from working-class backgrounds. We dragged ourselves up and worked hard to better ourselves.
We chose fee-paying schools in south Dublin because they were the best schools in our neighbourhood, with strong academic records, excellent facilities and extracurricular activities, and a Christian ethos that emphasises social justice.
We chose them because we wanted our children to be educated with other children who would aspire to attend university and because we wanted them to reach their full potential. Most of all, we chose them because the public system is badly funded and completely oriented around rote learning, with no real concern for an holistic educational experience.
Our other local schools can barely afford to heat the building. Why is this Labour Minister for Education trying to force us to send our kids to the same dire schools?
We pay a hell of a lot of taxes. We don’t avail of tax shelters or send our money offshore. We make substantial donations to charity. We are happy to do this, and we don’t object to higher taxes, but must we constantly be ashamed of earning money and creating jobs?
As taxpayers, we figure that it’s reasonable that the State provides a basic level of education for all the children in the country. The Government pays all teacher salaries. After that, fee-paying schools are on their own, covering their own maintenance, heat, light, insurance and extracurricular costs, while State schools get a capitation grant. That is right and proper, as fee-paying schools have extra resources at their disposal.
Where I really object is the constant squeeze on fee-paying schools by the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio. I worry that some will close or end up little better than our rather poor public education system. And then what's next? No private cars? People with bigger houses taxed into smaller houses? Parents with money for grinds getting an extra charge? Everyone brought down to the level of badly funded public schools? It's the same logic. It's petty and small-minded, and it stinks.
This column gives people within the education system the opportunity to speak out anonymously. Contributions to educationdesk@irishtimes.com
