School starts. Private schools are authorized to increase the fee againBy Evangelina Himitian

It will be one more increase that impacts the battered family economy at the start of classes. After the teaching increases granted on a joint basis, the government of Buenos Aires and the province of Buenos Aires authorized the review of the tariff table for privately managed educational institutes who receive contributions from the State and will thus be able to apply starting next month increases of between 40% and 50%. In a resolution published yesterday afternoon, it was allowed 20% above of which it had been authorized to increase in December, in the case of Buenos Aires residents, and 10% more in the case of Buenos Aires residents.

Therefore, schools in the province that receive state contributions may increase up to 50% compared to what was paid in December, as reported by the Association of Private Education Institutes of Buenos Aires (Aiepba), its executive secretary, Martín Zurita. . In the city, they may apply an adjustment of up to 40%.

This novelty comes when the majority of schools have already communicated the March fee, which means that many institutions will have to send the communications again or charge it retroactively, since the increases impact the monthly fee charged in the coming days. .

“We know that it is complicated and a great effort for the community of parents to sustain the payment of the increases in many cases.but it is necessary to adapt the income of the entities to the constant increases in all economic variables and accompany the equal salary update of the teaching sector,” explained Zurita.

The increase comes in the midst of the great crisis of private schools, in a context of a lot of conflict with families due to increases in fees and the announcement of the closure of a large number of private schools and kindergartens to which it became very difficult to continue offering the service given the drop in student enrollment and in many cases without contributions or subsidies. Meanwhile, the aid that President Javier Milei himself announced for middle class families is expected to arrive, to prevent them from having to take or change their children from school.

This measure It reaches schools that have state contributions, that require special authorization from the authorities of their jurisdiction, to transfer more than 50% of the increase in the teaching parity to the quotas. In December, a 30% increase had already been authorized, which is added to this increase, and thus leads to an increase of between 40% and 50% in the fees of subsidized schools.

Today, in the country There are about 14,200 private schools. Of them, about 10,000 have some type of subsidy: Some receive funds from the State to pay 40% of teaching salaries and others, up to 100%, according to data from the Argentine Confederation of Private Education Institutes (Caiep). There are about 4,200 who do not receive help from the State. Of them, half correspond to middle and upper middle sectors.

Last December, The schools announced to parents a 30% increase that had been authorized by the City and the Province. In between, in both jurisdictions salary increases were given to teachers. “As between 80% and 90% of the tuition fee for a private school is labor costs, teacher parity has an impact on the fee. While non-subsidized schools increased directly, subsidized schools had to wait for authorization, which arrived this Monday,” explains Zurita. In the case of Buenos Aires schools, just yesterday they authorized 20% more, which is added to the 30% in December. And in the city, 30% had been authorized, plus 10% that arrived this afternoon, and adds up to a 40% increase since December.

What happens to the unsubsidized?

Schools that do not receive contributions, explains Zurita, have a free fee system: they estimate the costs, and when there are increases, they can increase without authorization from the governments. That’s why, It is estimated that they have already transferred the increase in joint contributions to the quota that they communicated or with the increase that they had reported, they were already covered against this increase, it depends on the calculations they made last year regarding how they projected the salary increases.

“Last year While those subsidized increased by 30% in December, they reported increases of between 40% and 50% for March”, details Zurita.

“It is still a minor increase in the consumer price index. We are going to absorb that difference from the institutions with the aim of facilitating continuity within the system for families,” Zurita explained. Aiepba had demanded a new tariff schedule from those responsible for educational areas after the cost of living indices for December and January were known (25.5% and 20.5% respectively), considering that the December authorization had been outdated.

Evangelina Himitian

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