Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has called on the government to take action against voluntary school contributions which are placing unfair pressure on families’ finances.
Teachta Crowe said:
\u201cWith the rising cost of living, parents are worrying about how they will meet the costs of the return to school this summer. One major cost that puts huge pressure on families is the school voluntary contribution.
\u201cYear on year, families are being crippled by requests for contributions of very often well over \u20ac100 or \u20ac200 per child, and even as much as \u20ac300-400 in some cases. Every year, I am contacted by many parents who are very anxious about covering these costs.
\u201cThese are huge sums for families to be expected to pull together \u2013 particularly at the same time as the rising costs of energy, fuel, groceries all put a serious strain on families\u2019 finances.
\u201cWe know that in reality, these contributions are voluntary in name only. In some instances, students and families can be denied certain services and extra-curricular activities and they can face stigma.
\u201cThe reason that this is happening is because the government has consistently underfunded our schools to the point that they feel they have to fundraise just to cover the basics. It has to end.
\u201cThere must be pathway for bringing about an end to voluntary contributions for good by restoring the capitation grants that were victims of austerity cuts. Our schools must be adequately resourced so that they are not forced to rely on donations from parents.
\u201cSinn F\u00e9in will continue to listen to the calls of families for change and for a break from the cost of living crisis. We will stand up for families here in Dublin South West to ensure they get a break from these costs and ensure our education system is fit for purpose.\u201d
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Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has called on the government to take action against voluntary school contributions which are placing unfair pressure on families’ finances. Teachta Crowe said: \u201cWith the rising cost of living, parents are worrying about how they will meet the costs of the return to school this summer. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4839,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions\/4839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}