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This, however :-
(a).
destroys initiative.
For if there is never any margin whatever on the working of a school, if Government pay only just enough to keep it running and not a cent more, then no addition or improvement of any kind is possible without going hat in hand to the Government Education Department. The entire initiative is in the hands of one man, the Director of Education.
(b).
removes all incentive to economy.
For where is the incentive to economy if, whether the school is well run or ill, whether it is highly efficient or only moderately so, Government always makes up the difference ? Indeed, we would go further. These proposals mean that the lower the school's income (e.g. from fees) and the higher its expenditure (which might easily occur from less efficiency) the more Government will have to pay to keep it afloat; the loss deserving the school, the greater the Government help. This destroys the incentive to economy.
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(c). lessens the opportunity and incentive to private beneficence. For if those from whom we ask assistance are told and in common honesty they must be told that, whether they subscribe or not, Government will always make up the difference, they are unlikely to say the least, to be powerfully impelled to generosity.
We proceed to develop in greater detallone or other consideration which will illustrate what we have in mind:-
(a).
Income from Fees.
of the Grant it follows:
1.
2.
3.
If the Income from Fees is taken into consideration for the calculation
that Government will have to insist on a Minimum Scale.
that if the Grant is the Difference between Income and Expenditure no School will have any interest in maintaining its Fees above the Minimum Scale.
that Fees will not only be standardized, a uniformity which the Grant System has always aimed at avoiding but also standardized at a figure lower than is economical; and the sum which is at present paid by the parents will have to be met by the taxpayers.
The right to determine the Scale of School Fees is inherent in the Freedom of the Managers. This, in the proposed
Grant Scheme, is taken away, not by direct order, but by financial arrangements which would make any deviation from the Minimum Scale prejudicial to the School.
Standardization of School Fees has been fully discussed by Grant School Representatives and has always been strongly opposed.
(b). Number of Pupils. Similarly, if the Fees go to the
Grant Schools, the natural tendency will be to teach as many pupils as are consistent with efficiency, whereas if the Fees go (indirectly to Government, the schools will naturally tend to teach as few students as possible. Why should a teacher be asked to teach a class and correct the essays of, say, thirty or forty pupils, when Government will not only pay him the same salary for teaching twenty, but will also pay the same salary to another teacher to teach.