A question of choice or opportunity?

The private school lobby is calling for state subsidies in the form of vouchers and tax rebates for parents who send their children to independent schools. Or else, they risk shutting down, an argument which raises the question: does the State have any obligation to subsidise a loss-making private operation? The answer is obviously not.

But private schools also present a rational economic argument when they claim the State would end up spending more money if these schools close and the cost of educating these children is borne by State schools alone. I don’t have the facts, but I suspect that there is a grain of truth in this argument. But it still does not address the fundamental question of whether taxpayers should fund and thus encourage parents to send their children to “elitist” schools, when the whole gist of the national curriculum is to encourage social inclusion. Actually, the government already subsidises choice through tax rebates for parents sending children to private schools.

But not all pro-choice arguments are based on protecting elitist enclaves. In theory State subsidies to private schools can make these schools accessible for all. If every parent rich and poor alike, is given a voucher which can be used in any school of his or her liking, private schools will become as socially inclusive as public schools. This system seems to have worked to some extent in Holland, where 70% of students attend private schools.

But will it work in Malta? As we all know, while some parents like the ethos of private schools, others simply send them to these schools simply because they do not want their kids to mix with the riff-raff attending state and church schools. I do not blame them for such a personal choice, because class distinctions in Malta are far from a thing of the past, and unfortunately the lower one’s life expectations are, the greater are the chances of exhibiting aggression and other undesirable characteristics. But rather than encouraging such choices, the State should address the underlying causes of this social malaise.

I suspect that even if a voucher system is introduced, fees for extra curricular activities, club memberships and other hidden charges and social networking will still keep the riff-raff away.

Secondly such a system could result in a fragmentation of the educational system which makes social integration a harder task to achieve. The less the integration, the greater the social divide and the greater the risk of state schools becoming ghettos. One potential danger could be posed by denominational schools, which while paying lip service to the curriculum, may actually undermine belief in scientific truths and public policy in matters like sex education.

This leads us to the final raised by the private school lobby. Why does the state subsidize Roman Catholic Church schools and not independent schools? The answer is simple: the church had agreed to pass its land to the government in return for state subsidies for its schools which became free for all. So this makes Church schools a class of their own.

Ironically this system was the consequence of a “socialist” battle for free education which actually entrenched confessional education in the country. The fact that despite the influx of State money, some Church schools refused access to medical students engaged in anti-Aids education does not bode well for repeating this experiment with say, evangelical schools who deny the existence of dinosaurs or global warming.