While one primary school only has money for cheap outings to a museum or the forest, another can hire extra subject teachers for music, Spanish or smaller nursery classes. Due to the voluntary parental contribution, the amount of which schools can determine themselves, large differences arise between what schools can offer in terms of extra activities. For twenty-five Utrecht primary schools that fall under the Catholic school umbrella organization KSU, these differences are reason enough to no longer ask for a contribution for the time being.
Education should offer equal opportunities, says KSU director Tjeerd de Jong. “As a sector, you have a collective responsibility to make society a little more beautiful. And it is not appropriate for private funds to give individual schools the opportunity to organize a lot for their children, while other children are deprived of this.”
Also read this article: Some schools do not yet accept that parental contributions are truly voluntary
The voluntary parental contribution is expressly intended for activities that take place outside normal lessons, such as excursions, Christmas celebrations and tutoring. Long-term extra-curricular activities, such as bilingual education, can also be paid for from this. Each school is responsible for the amount and how the money is spent. The contribution is voluntary, something that the school guide must clearly state. Since 2021, students may not be excluded from regular activities if their parents do not pay.
This summer, various educational organizations, including the Association of Public Education (VOO), the LAKS, the VO Council and the Primary Education Council, called on the House of Representatives to abolish the voluntary parental contribution at primary schools because they note that the “differences between schools get bigger”. In order to give every child equal opportunities, the organizations advocated “equality of opportunity” through an amount per student from the government.
More teachers
In February, the Utrecht city council adopted two motions calling for alternatives to the parental contribution to be investigated: a maximum for the contribution and a school fund, in which all donations are collected and redistributed per child per school. According to one of the adopted motions, the voluntary parental contribution at Utrecht primary schools varies between 0 and 1,250 euros per year.
An inventory is currently being made of how much money the 116 Utrecht primary schools receive through parental contributions, which activities are organized and how the municipality can help financially or organizationally. In November, the school boards will decide in consultation with the alderman whether they want the municipality to take on a central role in the organization of a school fund.
In the coming months, the extracurricular activities of the Catholic primary schools in Utrecht will be paid for from the reserves of the school umbrella organization. “We can keep this up for at least two years,” says KSU director Tjeerd de Jong. He hopes for an urban solution in the form of a school fund. He thinks a maximum contribution is a compromise: “That does not solve the principle point. Education is a public task and the school fund is intended to give all children the same opportunity.”
I think it’s great that you take such good care of your own child, but not through the school
Tjeerd de Jong director KSU
Within the Catholic schools umbrella organization in Utrecht, the voluntary parental contribution has been discussed for almost two years. Not every school or parent within the KSU was in favor of ending the voluntary parental contribution. “Some schools asked four hundred euros,” says Tjeerd de Jong. The majority, fourteen of the 25, asked between twenty and fifty euros. Five schools charged nothing and six schools charged more than fifty euros.
“Schools would like to organize an extra activity. Some parents said: ‘I have the financial space to facilitate my own child’s education,’” says De Jong. “Well, I think it’s great that you take such good care of your own child, but not through the school. If you want that, I think you should make that money available for the collective. For me that is Utrecht.”
No payment reminder
The largest school group, SPO Utrecht, which includes 38 public schools, has not yet taken a position, says chairman of the executive board Anko van Hoepen. Before the meeting with the alderman in November, Van Hoepen hopes that his school directors will agree, although he emphasizes that schools are autonomous. “I don’t want to impose a decision from above.” However, according to Van Hoepen, there must be an alternative to the voluntary parental contribution for the coming school year.
There are also differences in parental contributions within his school community, says Van Hoepen, although they remain “anyway” below a hundred euros. “Most schools charge around fifty euros, but we also have schools that have chosen for some time not to charge anything. Sometimes the director estimates that parents are having difficulty making ends meet, such as in Overvecht or Leidsche Rijn.”
Other directors “are no longer so concerned about it,” says Van Hoepen, and do not send payment reminders, for example.
“At the same time, parents feel a huge barrier not to pay.”
De Jong sees a role for the municipality as a “neutral party” that can manage and distribute the money. “We have twenty-five boards in Utrecht, all of whom think: I don’t want to give away too much. That is a complex interplay of forces.” He cites the recent registration policy in the city as a successful example of the local government’s involvement in reorganizing primary school education.
Since 2021, parents can register their children for primary school through a city-wide, centralized procedure. Previously, many Utrecht primary schools used shadow lists, which meant that parents registered their children for school before the age of three. This way, well-informed parents could easily secure a place for their child. All Utrecht primary schools are now affiliated with the central registration.
Single-diggers with significant contributions
The question is whether the Utrecht school boards will agree on an alternative to the voluntary parental contribution. Some independent schools, the so-called one-person schools, have “long traditions of significant contributions”, says SPO Utrecht chairman Van Hoepen. According to responsible councilor Eelco Eerenburg (D66), there are only six schools with a parental contribution above two hundred euros.
This is what Happy Kids Education, a primary school with “challenging education for curious and gifted students”, asks 1050 euros. This money will be used to appoint additional subject teachers who can debate, program and offer other additional education in projects with students on Thursdays and Fridays, such as theater or making robots.
Director and founder Sella van de Griend does not believe in a school fund or municipal maximum. “A school fund is a nice idea in theory, but it doesn’t work in practice.” She thinks that parents will not give an amount to a collective if they do not see a concrete “result” for their donation.
I think that just looking at children with the poorest parents is a limited view
Sella van de Griend director of Happy Kids Education
Van de Griend tells how her school received donations of ten or twenty thousand euros from parents and sympathizers. “Those parents give money because they specifically support this education.” She estimates that “98 percent of parents” pay the voluntary parental contribution. A small portion of them pay less because they cannot spare the money.
Whether these high contributions will not increase inequality in education? Van de Griend doesn’t think so. “It just depends on what you take as a starting point for inequality. I think that just looking at children with the poorest parents is a limited view.” Van de Griend emphasizes that she uses the money to make possible the education that parents want: with a lot of attention from teachers and tailor-made for each student. “That also fits in with the desire for more equality, because gifted children are also entitled to that extra challenge.”
Councilor Eerenburg would prefer to see “more solidarity” in the parental contribution at primary schools: “Children in poverty also have the right to activities,” he said through his spokesperson. “We want to make wealthy parents pay more through a school fund. There is a chance that schools with high contributions will not cooperate. This does not necessarily mean that a municipal school fund is not possible for the rest of the schools.”