Less money to employees than rich transfers
Half of primary and special education schools spend less on staff than the ministry transfers for that purpose. This is now allowed within the lump sum system, but the discussion about the freedom of government has erupted in all frenzy.
Picture: Type tank
Last week pleaded D66 MP Paul van Meenen for a completely different approach. He does not want the board, but school teams and directors determine how the money is spent. This week, the Education Council will issue an advice on the financing of education and how it can be used to promote quality.
In recent years, less of the income from schools has been spent on staff and more on housing. The AOb therefore advocates a shot come between personnel expenses and other costs. The representative of the primary school boards, the PO council, says in turn, to understand that schools are making choices for less personnel expenditure. Boards not only receive too little for staff, but also 375 million euros too little for housing, cleaning and educational materials, for example.
Housekeeping books
Because of the discussion dived the Education magazine in primary school housekeeping to get the facts about personnel costs out. What were we looking at? The government pays two amounts to the boards, one for staff and one for the other costs. This is done on the basis of dozens of indicators.
The ratio between that staff budget and the material budget is 85 percent for people and 15 percent for material costs. As the ministry describes it, this is sober, but enough for 'effective education'. You could consider that 85 percent of personnel costs as the norm, the minimum limit that must be spent on personnel.
The data files of DUO, the organization that transfers the money from the Ministry of Education to the boards, show how this works out for each school board. Looking at 2016, this gives the following picture:
- On average, schools spend 1 percent more on staff than the standard of 85 percent of the government grant
- 53 percent spend less on staff than the standard of 85 percent of the government grant
- 18 percent spend substantially less on staff (less than 82 percent) but lose money and spend more on housing and other costs
- 28 percent spend generously more on staff (more than 88 percent), especially boards with high parental contributions and boards that release money from equity
Potting
What do the school boards that do not meet the staffing standards at all spend their money on? Especially potting. While an average of 1 percent remains in administrations, these schools divert 4 percent to capacity and reserves. While the vast majority of schools do not lack buffers. Furthermore, the accommodation costs are 1 percent higher, the other costs 2 percent.
And where are the schools that spend a lot more on staff? If we look at the group that spends more than 85 percent of the government grant on personnel, the top of these is dominated by general private schools and private schools with a high personal contribution. The importance of that own contribution in their housekeeping books is getting bigger and bigger. Furthermore, by schools that use and save money from equity. Or maybe a few who live too big and, if that goes on for too long, could get into trouble.
Does your board meet the standard?
Does your school board spend 85 percent of the government grant on staff? This can be checked via the public data at the Education Executive Agency. DUO uses this ratio between personnel costs and government contribution as an important indicator for all education sectors, in this link in column M. For the sake of simplicity, this Excel file only lists the figures of boards with primary schools for the past five years. You can search with board number or the name of the board.
Read the entire article about the lump sum research from the Education Journal via this link. You can read the news item about the parental contributions here .
