PUBLIC schools want to raise fees paid by parents to compensate for State Government cuts to their budgets.
The increases could lift basic fees at top public secondary schools to $700 and charges for primary students to $400 - a rise of about $100 in some cases.
South Australian Secondary Principals Association president Jim Davies said schools were sensitive about charging parents but budget cuts would force them to push for more, saying: "To maintain the quality of what we do - the resources we put into classrooms - we will have to have a good, hard look at what level of increased materials and services charges are appropriate," he said.
"There remains high levels of uncertainty about the funding that will come from the department to schools." Schools still stand to lose $18 million in bank interest over three years from next year.
The Education Department is yet to reveal how it will achieve a $36 million "efficiency dividend" by 2010 and schools have been asked to cut energy costs by $4.3 million within three years. Principals and their governing councils will set new fees for 2008 as early as next term.
This year, the fee recommended by the Education Department was $244 for secondary schools and $182 for primary, although many charge more with parents' and departmental approval.
"There have been schools that have held material and service fees constant and they will probably have a significant jump that goes beyond that," Mr Davies said.
He said his own school - the Australian Science and Mathematics School at Flinders University - usually kept its fee increases in line with inflation.
"This school's fees are around the $650 mark. On the basis of 2.5 to 3 per cent CPI rate, we'd probably look at a $50 increase," he said. Glenunga International High School principal Bob Knight said the school was considering higher fees for optional courses including vocational subjects and the International Baccalaureate. "Anything above the standard we are going to have a look at," he said.
His school was still $100,000 short on last year's budget.
SA Association of State School Organisations executive director David Knuckey said all schools would either have to raise fees or cut services. The association is the peak SA body for governing councils, which individually set fees for their own schools.
"We still don't know at this stage exactly how much money they are going to lose - for many schools it will be tens of thousands of dollars," he said.
But it was not possible to increase fees enough to cover all the money lost from school budgets.
The Education Department sets a minimum fee for public schools to charge their students for "materials and services" - money that covers books and equipment for libraries, laboratories and special subjects.
To make a higher fee legally recoverable, school councils must gain the approval of parents and the Education Department, although they can introduce a "voluntary" charge. SA Primary Principals Association president Glyn O'Brien said many parents failed to pay their fees, regardless of how much they were. "There are lots of schools where it doesn't matter if you put the fees up or not - the parents wouldn't be able to afford them anyway," she said.
Australian Education Union SA branch president Andrew Gohl said fee increases were a "double tax" on parents for education, which the union believed should be free. "Schools have been charging fees for quite some time because, at a federal and state level, there is simply not enough money being put into public education," he said.
Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith said it was up to the department to approve increases in fees. "They have to have all the forms and everything approved by the department - there's a process for it," she said.
Opposition Education spokesman Iain Evans said the minister has "got a problem".
"The only ways schools can recover the money they are losing in the cuts is either to cut staff or put up school fees," he said.
"It wouldn't surprise me at all that fees increase."
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