Inequalities in the private funding of public schools: parent financial contributions and school socioeconomic status

ABSTRACT

Parent involvement in their child’s schooling is routinely celebrated and emphasised in government education policy in many countries. We take a critical lens to examining parent involvement by investigating voluntary parent fees in public secondary schools, and how these fees are patterned by school socioeconomic status (SES). In Australia, where this study is located, public schools may request ‘voluntary’ fees from parents to enhance education programmes and facilities. As public schools are increasingly situated in a competitive market, this has arguably augmented pressure for schools and their communities to generate funds. Our findings show large inequalities between public schools, with high-SES schools enjoying more than four times parent-generated income than low-SES schools. Parent financial contributions are a form of structural inequality that benefits socially advantaged students and schools, potentially serving as both a cause and consequence of socially segregated schooling. We conclude with recommendations for policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Parent fees
• fundraising
• school segregation
• school socioeconomic status (SES)
• voluntary parent fees
• public schools
• privatisation

Acknowledgements

This study received funding from Research for Educational Impact (REDI), Deakin University. We first commenced this study in 2017. Thank you to Diana Langmead, an excellent research assistant. Thank you to the anonymous reviewers for reading the paper and providing helpful comments on the first draft of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Emma Rowe is a senior lecturer in the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. Her research is interested in school choice, policy and politics in education, and education activism. Her most recent book is published by Routledge (2017), exploring the de/construction of public schooling within OECD countries, activism and school choice. She serves as an associate editor for Critical Studies in Education. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Journal of Education Policy, Critical Studies in Education and Discourse.

Laura B. Perry, PhD, is Associate Professor of Education Policy and Comparative Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. She conducts research about educational inequalities, especially as they appear between schools, and the systems, structures and policies that shape them. Specific research interests include educational marketisation, school segregation and stratification, between-school inequalities, and social class and education.

ORCID

Emma Rowe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3747-8070

Notes

1 All dollar amounts listed in this paper are in Australian Dollars (AUD).

2 This study draws on data from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) (see Chesters and Daly 2017).

3 See: https://myschool.edu.au/. The MySchool website is authored, designed and maintained by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

4 See: https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/going-to-a-public-school/finding-a-public-school.

Additional information

Funding

This study received funding from Deakin University, Research for Educational Impact (REDI).