Sir, – Michael Finucane (June 1st) states that "Not all children in fee-paying schools are from the privileged elite". This may be true but any parent who can afford to pay an after-tax school fee of between €5,000 and €18,000 a year is far from underprivileged. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS O’FLAHERTY,
Santry,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Should the State pay the salaries of teachers in private (fee-paying) schools? This is an ongoing controversy.
Perhaps we should look at the system in France, an avowedly secular state.
France has both public and private schools. The government pays teachers’ salaries in both types of schools, within an agreed quota, if – and only if – they are fully qualified. In a private school, however, the government will not fund any expenses apart from salaries. All other expenses such as administration, energy, maintenance, ongoing development, extra-quota teachers and ancillary (non-teaching) staff must be covered by fees.
This arrangement seems to be generally acceptable – Yours, etc,
MARIE CELINE
O’BYRNE, SSL,
St Louis, Monaghan.
Sir, – In defending the use of taxes to fund fee-paying schools, Michael Finucane (June 6th) makes the familiar argument that parents who send their children to those schools, as taxpayers, are entitled to have their children’s education subsidised as much as anyone else.
I am a childless adult. If I’m going to pay taxes, I’m quite happy for them to be used to support education that is open to everybody. However, I resent my tax euros being given to a private company that then refuses to provide a service to certain individuals on a basis as arbitrary as income. – Yours, etc,
CHRIS McCROHAN,
Clonmel,
Co Tipperary