how private schools largely benefit from public funding

Private schools, colleges and high schools under contract with the State are more than 75% financed by public funds and sometimes obtain more resources, without strict controls being carried out.

Private establishments that are very hungry for public funding. While the new Minister of National Education and Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, is strongly criticized over the schooling of her children in a private establishment in Paris, this controversy revives the debate on the financing of education private.

The elected communist representatives of Paris thus denounced, Monday January 15, the granting “beyond legal obligations” of 487,000 euros in subsidies to the Stanislas middle school, an opulent establishment in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, where the minister’s children are educated, in addition to operating grants of 1.3 million euros for the 2022-2023 school year . On Sunday, the SUD Education union also asked, in a press release, “the end of financing private schools with public money”.

The private sector financed 75% by public funds

In France, in 2022, more than two million students were enrolled in one of the 7,500 private establishments under contract with the State, according to the Court of Auditors. Their regime was created by the law of December 31, 1959, known as the Debré law, on relations between the State and private educational establishments. It provides for a certain number of commitments, such as compliance with the programs defined by the Ministry of National Education. Unlike public schools, colleges and high schools, which are required to welcome all students in their geographic area, private schools can enroll the students of their choice.

Although private establishments under contract benefit from broad organizational autonomy, their budgetary autonomy is very limited. Indeed, 76.8% of the financing of these establishments is provided by public money, coming from the State and local authorities, according to a report from the Court of Auditors from June 2023. Only 23.2% of the budget of these private establishments is directly financed by households and businesses.

In detail, private primary schools (nursery and elementary schools) are 55.2% financed by the State and 21.5% by local authorities. In the public sector, the State finances almost the same share, 58.6%, and local authorities, 37.3%. Private secondary establishments (colleges and high schools) are financed more by the State (67.2%) and to a lesser extent by local authorities (9.6%). For the public, the State finances 74.3% of the budget, while the departments and regions take care of 21.4% of the financing of these establishments.

In total, the State has allocated 8 billion euros in 2022 to private establishments, in particular to pay the 142,000 teachers managed by the rectorates and assigned to private establishments under contract.

More resources in the private sector

The crux of the matter in the financing of these establishments is played out each year, when the global hourly allocations (DHG) are distributed. These correspond to the number of hours (and therefore teachers) that National Education allocates to middle and high schools, both public and private. However, according to documents consulted by The worldprivate high schools in Paris have more teaching hours relative to the number of students than public establishments, for the general sector, with equivalent numbers and social composition.

In 2021, the average hourly allocation per student was 1.1 for Parisian public general high schools, compared to 1.27 in the private sector. This figure corresponds to the number of weekly teaching hours divided by the number of students. “The higher it is, the more favorable the supervision of students and the teaching conditions are”precise The world, who was only able to consult data from establishments in the capital. In detail, the Stanislas high school, where the children of the Minister of National Education are educated, thus benefits from an hourly allocation per student of 1.14; and the Alsatian school, attended by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during his youth, with an hourly allocation per student of 1.24. The average number of students per class is also lower in Parisian private high schools, reports The world. There were on average 29.7 students per class in these private establishments, compared to 34.2 in the public.

Finally, according to the Court of Auditors, the control of public attributions allocated to private Parisian high schools under contract with the State raises questions. The financial control rules of these establishments “are neither known, nor a fortiori applied by the different stakeholders (…) This non-application of the texts is not admissible and must be corrected as quickly as possible.”concludes the financial jurisdiction.