No more Govt funds for Catholic schools

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 26

No more Govt funds for Catholic schools

PA Wellington The Government has indicated it will not give integrated Catholic schools any more financial aid. The Minister of Education, Mr Marshall, on Wednesday met Catholic authorities, headed by Cardinal Tom Williams, to discuss their difficulty in financing their school building programme. Mr Marshall said later that he did not think that giving the schools more money was an option.

“The Government has already provided generous subsidy provisions. If we ask can we improve that still further, I think frankly the answer is no,” he said.

However, he and his colleagues would consider other ways of helping the 249. integrated Catholic

schools, including looking at the basis of the integration agreement itself.

The Catholic education authorities’ problem is the unexpectedly high costs of improving their school buildings to State school standard.

The improvement is a condition of integration, in return for which the State pays all salaries, equipment and maintenance costs. It also provides Housing Corporation loans for 90 per cent of the work, available in set amounts each year. The executive director of Catholic Education, Mr Pat Hoult, said inflation and programme delays meant the cost had far exceeded expectations. It has been estimated the total cost of improvements will be about $lOO million.

Mr Hoult said the Catholic authorities were finding difficulties in raising the cash to continue the programme. “We will not be starting any new work once the present financial year finishes,” he said. At this stage, there was no plan to raise school fees to fund the work, because the Church was committed to providing an affordable Catholic education for all who wanted it. Mr Marshall could not specify what kinds of solution would be looked at except to say the Government would examine the rules of integration. Improvement standards would not be relaxed, he said.

Since present building arrangements would stop on March 31, a proposal must be worked out by April 1.