Private investigation
IN A recent column I gave a rundown of a dozen big issues this States has to address over the next year or so - but I forgot one potentially controversial subject.
IN A recent column I gave a rundown of a dozen big issues this States has to address over the next year or so - but I forgot one potentially controversial subject.
The long-term agreement on the level of States subsidy to the island's private schools is coming to an end and needs to be renewed. Normally that might be a fairly routine affair. The two parties would look at the old deal, tweak it here and there and sign up for another five or 10 years. This time round, things might be a bit different - certainly they should be.
The last agreement came at a time when the States was flush with cash and regularly generating a surplus of many tens of millions of pounds on the annual revenue account.
Now they face a worrying deficit and are cutting back on a range of States-funded services, from health care to public loos.
Perhaps more relevantly, their consultants, brought in to find States savings, identified the huge payments to the private schools as a prime area in which to make economies. In fact, they even suggested the subsidies might be removed altogether, leaving the colleges to finance non-scholarship places through fees, like private schools in most other places.
Of course, the decision lies with the States and not Tribal Consulting, but it would be pretty perverse if their advice was totally ignored. After all, matters as unwelcome and diverse as bus fare hikes and public toilet closures have been justified on the basis that they had been identified by Tribal and pushed forward by the Financial Transformation Team, or whatever its pretentious title is.
The fascinating question is whether this body - well populated with Old Elizabethans - will be as resolute in making this saving (impacting on school fees paid by the articulate upper-middle classes) as they were when the losers were the island's bus users.
Somehow I doubt it. You can already hear all the tired counter-arguments being made by the self-interested lobby groups.
The first one will be that any reduction in subsidy will hit hardest the parents of modest means who make sacrifices to send their children to college.
Well, it is their choice. The state schools are just as good and are provided free of charge. However, if those lobby groups are really worried about access to the colleges for children from low-income families then the answer is easy. The States subsidy could still be cut, but instead of being spread evenly among all pupils it could fund a means-tested bursary scheme, with those parents well able to meet the full fees expected to do so.
The second argument will be that parents of children at private schools pay their taxes so should be able to expect something in return. This is to misunderstand the taxation system. They do get something in return - free access to the States education system if they choose to use it. If they don't it's their judgement call and they fund the alternative.
What will they expect next? Private health care, but with the taxpayer picking up half the tab? What about taxpayers with no kids? Should they be entitled to a refund? Of course not. We all jointly fund the public provision of key services, whether we use them or not - it's called society.
The third argument will be that reducing the subsidy will threaten the viability of the colleges and if they close it will end up costing the States more. Poppycock. Even if fees went up considerably - towards the norm for private schools elsewhere - there would still be plenty of takers. Why is a bit of a mystery, but there is a real taste for private education in some quarters.
Perhaps they would shrink a bit, perhaps the three private colleges would have to co-operate more to achieve economies of scale, but they wouldn't fold. If you doubt that then ask how Blanchelande managed to not only survive but grow from a standing start without any States support at all.
It will be an interesting debate, to be sure, but my guess is that the States will shy away from any major reforms to college funding. After all, upsetting the bus user or the weak-bladdered is one thing but there are some well-heeled, influential groups who you don't want to cross. Despite all the tough talk of cuts, this will be an occasion to run and hide.
