Europe 1 with AFP 08:53, April 2, 2024
A parliamentary report crimps public funding for private contract education, mainly Catholic, and proposes sanctions in the event of breaches. This report, signed by LFI deputies Paul Vannier and Renaissance Christopher Weissberg, must be presented Tuesday afternoon to the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education at the National Assembly.
Opaque financing, underestimated spending, insufficient controls...: a parliamentary report that AFP was able to consult on Tuesday undermines public financing of private education under contract, mainly Catholic, and proposes sanctions in the event of breaches. This report, signed by LFI deputies Paul Vannier and Renaissance Christopher Weissberg, must be presented Tuesday afternoon to the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education at the National Assembly.
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Lack of “budgetary visibility” on the state spending side
The rapporteurs interviewed nearly 60 organizations (administrations, local authorities, networks of establishments, teachers, etc.) in order to evaluate the public funding allocated to private educational establishments, which educate 17% of students in France (2 million ) and are financed “at least 75% by public authorities”. Public resources benefiting the sector amount to 9.04 billion euros in 2024, but "despite the sums involved", the allocation of this expenditure is "not very transparent", "without a systematically defined and eminently political legal framework". ", they regret.
They point out a lack of "budgetary visibility" on the state spending side, particularly with regard to the remuneration of those accompanying students with disabilities, as well as a "lack of accounting clarity" on the local authorities side. Public spending devoted to private establishments (95% of which are Catholic) is "in any case underestimated", add the parliamentarians. So much so that the funding model, which is based on an 80-20 ratio between public and private, is currently “more favorable to private establishments”, according to the report.
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Budgetary controls are insufficient, says report
Another observation: “the frequency and depth of controls” are “very largely insufficient”. Budgetary controls are insufficient, according to the report which mentions association contracts with the State "tacitly renewed from year to year", without verification. The document also points to “blind spots” in the educational control of establishments, in particular “the proper application of provisions relating to religious instruction”.
Administrative controls are based only on "rare reports", as for the Averroès Muslim high school in Lille or the Stanislas college in Paris, criticize the deputies who ask that the inspection reports be made public. “The compensation required from private establishments is far from being up to the level of funding, as evidenced by the deterioration of social and educational diversity,” add the two deputies.
To strengthen this diversity, Christopher Weissberg proposes making it compulsory to take into account the social positioning index (IPS) in the “resources allocation model”. Paul Vannier advocates "a penalty mechanism" to reduce allocations when this IPS is higher than that of public establishments in the same sector.