Schools hire interstate debt collectors
WA public schools are hiring interstate debt collectors to recoup money from parents struggling to pay elective course fees.
The tactic was revealed at a parliamentary hearing on the Department of Education’s annual report today which was told one single mother of three children was being chased by a Melbourne debt collection agency for $200.
During the hearing shadow education minister Sue Ellery told Education director general Sharyn O’Neill she was concerned that some of the debts being pursued were lower than the cost of hiring debt collectors.
“It seems to me that it’s a small amount of money to be using to be using a debt collector in Melbourne to chase up,” she said.
“It does strike me as adding more stress to a family already under stress. We take great pride as a nation and as a State in offering universal education.
“That’s something we hold to be a core value for us and it’s unfortunate if families are not able to choose the best education options for their children because they can’t afford to pay a $200 course fee.”
Parents who can not afford to pay voluntary contributions of $235 a year for secondary students and $60 for primary students are given a Government allowance to cover the costs, so every public pupil gets a free education.
But the allowance does not cover elective options including metalwork and food preparation, which can cost between $40 and several hundred dollars.
Outside the hearing Ms Ellery said the South-West mother owing the $200, who did not wish to be identified, did not have that properly explained to her before she enrolled her Year 9 son in two electives.
Ms Ellery called for the fee to be waived for the single mother.
Ms O’Neill said contracting debt collectors was up to individual schools and it happened rarely.
She said schools offered payment plans to parents in arrears, who knew the costs of the courses when they signed up for them.
“On the rare occasion that a debt collector is used I would expect the test of reasonableness, that being that it shouldn’t outstrip the cost of the actual fee,” she said. “If that has been the case, I will be examining that and certainly be talking to the people involved.”
