64153
22.
attend schools in Hong Kong sxs not domiciled in the Colony.
The Colony's schools are maintained by the taxpayers either
directly or indirectly, and it is only reasonable that,
since they bear the financial burden, thoir children shoulâ
in all cases have the preference in admission into schoole
and the granting of free places and scholarships. Any
proposal for retron clment in education at ace affects the
children of the Colony's taxpayers, and the Commissioners
would favour any practical scheme for obliging those who
not being domiciled here, use the educational facilities
provided by the local Government, to boar a proportionately
greater shero of the expenses ( either in increased fees or
some other method) than those resident in Hong Kong ·
grants should be paid to grant-in-gid schools in respect
of the children of such "absentee" parents. An exception
to this being made in the case of British subjects living
in an outport who send their children to be educated here.
THE TAXPAYER AND THE COST OF EDUCATION
35.
NO
it.
+
Administrative
Education, like public health services, is quantitative.
Much or little, or even none at all, can be spent on
according to the wishes of the community.
services on the other hand have to be provided up to a
certain minimum. The community should therefore be put in
a position to realize what it means in dollars and cents to
provide education. The way in which this could be done
would be to allot annually to education a fixed lump amm,
say, equal to half of the present expenditure of the
Education Department, out of the general revenue of the
Colony.
Then if the public, functioning through the Board
of Education, wished to extend education the necessary funds
should be raised by an education rate, which the Board