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The Idea of Liberty.
There is a fundamental difference of principle between
a system in which the Managers of Schools are able to initiate expenditure to the obtaining of Government approval afterwards, and one in which every item of expenditure must be carefully scrutinized first, and the Managers cannot act without the previous sanction of Government. The former system is secured by our proposals; the latter is imposed by those of Government.
Two Relationships with Government possible.
There are two relationships possible between Government and those whom it employs to do its work. The first is that between the administrative body and a Government department; the relationship, for example, between the Legislative Council and the Education Department in Hong Kong, or between the Education Department and one of its own Government Schools. In this case, the department (the Education Department or the School is merely the instrument of the Government; the monies spent are in the strictest sense public monies, of which an account must be rendered publicly to the Government Financial Officers. It is into this category that we feel the Government Educational Authorities (doubtless with the best intentiens in the world) are endeavouring to fit our Schools.
There is, however, a second relationship between the Government and its collaborators: that, for instance, between Government and a Government contractor indeed, between Government and any Government employee. Nobody dreams of asking a Government contractor what his income is, or whether he is making a profit or not; that question no more concerns Government than the question whether he is thrifty and
is able to save or not. The question is purely whether the work done, the service rendered is worth the expenditure of public money or not.
Nature and Amount of Government Aid.
But since the relation of Grant Schools to Government is that of private corporations working under Government direction, it surely follows that their position should approximate rather to that of Government contractors than to that of a Government Department. (Neither of these two comparisons is perfect; but they may serve to illustrate our point of view.) The Grant-in-Aid should, then, be in the nature of a bargain or contract struck between private schools and Government, in which Government has the duty of seeing that public money is not squandered, that the contract made is not imprudent or extravagant, that the prescribed conditions are observed and in this sense it is true that "Government assistance should make no provision for a profit on a school", just as Government should make no provision for excessive expenditure on any branch of public service. one, however, has yet contended that the Grant Schools do not give ample value for what they receive.
Conclusion.
?
No
The truth, is, that we do not believe it possible or desirable to treat our schools as if they were Government schools and to subject them to the same measures of Government.
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