PROTESTANT SCHOOLS appear to be battening down the hatches and cutting spending in response to recent Budget cutbacks. Like all schools, they must absorb the reductions in grants and substitution payments. But for them, the pain goes deeper. Without prior notice, a special support services grant paid to 21 Protestant schools across the State was withdrawn on Budget day to achieve savings of €2.8 million. And the pupil-teacher ratio for Protestant fee-paying schools has been increased from 18:1 to 20:1.
Many of the schools say their current budgetary position is unsustainable. Much of the pain will have to be absorbed by parents through higher fees as schools struggle to balance their books. Without grant aid, some children may be deprived of their right to a Protestant education. Inevitably, the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio will see the loss of teaching posts and new restrictions on subject choice for pupils.
In targeting these schools, the Department of Education has tapped into the lazy stereotype that somehow, because they are Protestant, they exist in a well-to-do environment and are less deserving of resources. In fact, most of these schools are struggling to balance their books and many of their students are less than well-heeled. At Bandon Grammar School in Co Cork, for example, about half of the student body receives financial support and some 12 per cent pay no fees whatsoever. If this was Northern Ireland, members of the Dáil would be alleging discrimination if it was happening to the schools of the Catholic minority.
The Budget has trampled on a proud tradition, stretching back more than 40 years, where this State sought to support a minority religion. In establishing the "free" education sector, Donogh O'Malley acknowledged how the fee-paying Protestant schools - most of them boarding schools - were the only option available for many Protestant children. Protestant schools were given the same support services grants available to Catholic schools inside the "free" education sector. A means-tested block grant was made available to needy Protestant students.
In seeking to defend the cuts, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe has signalled that the favourable treatment of Protestant schools was vulnerable to legal challenge by some Catholic schools. Such a case has never been made. Indeed, the very decision to reverse the grant may be subject to a greater challenge as it is selecting a minority for invidious discrimination.