Prepared by Lucia Valente

Prepared September 2018

Parents are paying too much for their children’s education and it does not need to be this way!!

https://www.joe.ie/news/schools-students-toilet-roll-638821

A few years ago, Irish people demonstrated in the streets about water charges and yet there are no demonstrations about this very important element of our country – the education of our young people. Why is that?

How badly is our country failing when parents have to provide funds for such basic items in schools? Where are the priorities of our public policy makers?

There are solutions – education does not need to be so expensive. There are options that make education more affordable – they are available now and yet public policy makers do not appear to have any interest pursuing such options. Why?.

Instead of targeting taxpayers to increase taxes and acquire additional funds to pay for raising costs of education why not look at currently available options?

The CCN team approached several contacts in the education sector and a local TD. We presented our education solution that emphases high quality education tools and solutions while reducing cost. Result: lots of talk and no action to solve this very important problem. Hearings and public policy discussions continue and yet nothing changes.

Think about it – – taxes in Ireland are high – we pay for public education through taxes and at the same time parents are asked to pay additional contributions to support schools. And on top of that, parents pay for grinds in a range of subjects – costs that could be in excess of 200 Euros monthly because they want their children to graduate from Secondary School with top marks.

This educational environment is considered the ‘norm’ for many parents. But it is not NORMAL. We should not accept it. We should demand of our local TD’s that they SOLVE it.

We need to accept that there is a need for a modern approach to education with qualified teachers and an economically viable system.

There are locally-developed solutions. DEMAND them!