ESC is looking to scrap colleges’ public funding
Taxpayers’ funding of the three colleges will be scrapped if deputies agree proposals about to be published by Education, Sport & Culture.
Elizabeth College, The Ladies’ College and Blanchelande currently receive a total of about £3m. a year from the States, but ESC wants to start a phased withdrawal of all public funding once the current grant agreement runs out in 2026. Talks lasting more than two years have failed to produce agreement and a policy letter due out on Monday is expected to include a counter proposal from the colleges which would maintain at least some public funding as well as ESC’s recommendation to terminate the States grant.
The States Assembly will be asked to vote on the options in March or April.
‘I look forward to an open and transparent debate before Easter, which I hope will focus on facts, data and analysis, rather than using this emotive issue as a political pawn. Our schoolchildren are too important for that,’ said ESC president Andrea Dudley-Owen.
‘The committee has been persuaded by evidence and research that it is not in the taxpayers’ interests to continue subsidising the private education sector on the island in the long term, which we can see is widening the attainment gap between our islands’ young people.’
Deputy Dudley-Owen said there had been ‘a phenomenal amount of hard work’ between her committee and the colleges and that it was ‘a shame’ they could not reach agreement.
ESC confirmed its outline proposals late yesterday after the Guernsey Press learned that a bid to the States was imminent to scrap a funding scheme which has already been reduced by millions of pounds a year over the past 15 years.
It said the grant was unfair to States schools, which it claimed had the space to accommodate a significant number of fee-paying students at lower cost, and rejected suggestions that a phased withdrawal would inevitably increase the colleges’ fees, which are currently between about £14,500 and £15,500 a year.
ESC called on the colleges to make themselves ‘more financially sustainable rather than automatically asking fee payers to bridge the gap’.
The three colleges wrote to parents yesterday to alert them that new funding proposals were imminent.
‘Although we have discussed the draft propositions with ESC and have had input into this part of the work, we have not been given sight of its policy letter,’ said the colleges.
‘We recognise the impact that this decision could have on our parents and pupils and are doing everything in our power to make robust representations.’
It is understood that the colleges’ preferred model, which was rejected by ESC, included a closer partnership with States schools, including on extra-curricular activities and governance, as well as a continuation of at least some public funding.
ESC member Deputy Sue Aldwell insisted that the committee’s proposals would not undermine the future of the colleges.
‘While the colleges are valuable assets to our islands, they should be financially independent,’ she said.
‘I am persuaded by the analysis which shows, contrary to popular argument, that the colleges do not save us money and that, if we needed to, absorbing some of these children into our system would be more economic and improve attainment for all of our young people.’
Deputy Andy Cameron, also a member of ESC, said the proposals would be fairer for all children.
‘While the colleges are all exploring building new facilities, the committee would propose using this money to support children currently in the States system who don’t have access to anywhere near the Colleges’ level of support and facilities,’ he said.
‘I cannot stress enough the stark difference re-allocating some of this money will make, and at the same time we can deliver a saving for the public purse.’
