PARENTS are forking out hundreds and even thousands of dollars on public school fees in spite of both major parties having previously promised to axe the controversial levies.
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Significant discrepancies in fees across schools and the inequity between those who pay and those who don’t are also of concern to the peak representative body of state school parents and friends associations.
Nigel Jones, president of the Tasmanian Association of State School Organisations, said some schools are charging as much as $800 for the coming school year.
“That’s for a high school student, and it’s an enormous amount of money, especially if you have more kids in school,” Mr Jones said.
At last year’s state election, Labor pledged to abolish levies if elected to government.
On Thursday, a Labor spokesperson would not commit the party to retaining the promise.
“Since the election Labor has been reviewing its policies to ensure they remain relevant and reflect the priorities of Tasmanians,” the spokesperson said.
The Liberals have form too on school fees, committing at the 2010 election to end those for primary school students.
Even after that election Will Hodgman was still trumpeting the policy.
“Our policy was to abolish all primary school so-called voluntary levies, which would have made public education in primary schools free again,” Mr Hodgman told Parliament.
The promise was dropped before the 2014 election.
Asked to explain its current position, a government spokesperson said: “The Government is committed to inclusive, affordable and equitable access to education.”
They also pointed to the Student Assistance Scheme, which exempts the parents of more than a third of public school students – or 22,077 last year – from paying school fees.
Mr Jones branded this “a huge inequity”.
“A parent might only be $50 or $100 over (the income test) and they don’t qualify, but they still have the same cost pressures,” he said.
Both major parties were happy to make promises before elections but after put the issue in the “too hard basket”, he said.
“We still believe in free education,” Mr Jones said.
“Parents are really being pushed to the wall, particularly since the school kids bonus was abolished.”
Last year, government schools received $12.6 million in levies, being for costs incurred in providing their core education programs.
The Education Department is reviewing fees and charges, and plans to release a revised policy this year so that schools can implement it in 2020.
