“Have you seen the girls who They liberalized private school fees?” “Yes, I read something, and I hope they don’t come with a big raise now.” “So…? Now that the government no longer controls increases, will they be able to increase whatever they want?
Questions like the ones that came up in the One Day School Moms Chat on Double Day Park village Many families are concerned about these hours. What does the national government’s decision to liberalize private school fees mean?
The main fear is that this means there is no cap on premium values or even difficulty knowing how much will be paid the following year.
But, as the chambers that bring together private schools have shown, this does not have to be the case. The government’s decision was published today in the Official Gazette and means the repeal of the 1993 decree, which obliged schools that receive a subsidy to inform families before October 1, and those who do not receive a subsidy, before October 31, of the fees that must be paid in the following year. This amount was set for the first batch of March, and this number was not allowed to increase unless there was an increase in the number of teachers or the government agreed to increase the numbers.
In January 2024, the rule requiring subsidized schools to provide these fees, of which there are about 9,800 across the country, was eliminated, and now, this rule change means that the country’s 4,200 unaided private schools will not have to offer these fees for several months as well.
For this reason, school administrators explain that to implement this standard, which was created in the context of full transferability, a number of times had to be proposed without real support, a number high enough to take into account inflation and cost increases that could occur after seven months. In an inflationary context, the science of the future was supposed to be done. In practice, this meant that this number was often higher than it should be. The educational authorities and the National Trade Secretariat, to which the schools had to submit these numbers, with the parents’ signature accepting the agreement, believe that this will allow prices not to rise preemptively, and for increases to occur gradually throughout the year.
naturally Fear of parents Is that there are no limits to these increases every monthThe arrival of next month’s installment is a headache. “It’s a problem if it’s going to be adjusted freely,” says Ana Paula Lopez, mother of Zoe, 9, and Caleb, 6, who live in Villa Crespo. “In practice, it goes up a little bit every month, but always something that makes sense. If they increase us every month, it’s a big problem, because the school is not something that can be changed in this way, with the best prices on the market. It’s not easy to change schools.”
Families fear that there will be an increase every month, and that it will be estimated, or unexpected, because it is not restricted or restricted by general price regulation. Above all, because if increases occur during the year, if it becomes unavailable to the family in general, we will have to wait until the following year to change schools, that is the proposal.
The chambers that bring schools together are seeking peace of mind and point out that the change will be more evident in removing bureaucracy from the system, as they will not have to report fees seven months in advance or sign the agreement with parents. They ensure that managers are able to propose a value for fees based on a cost structure that is closer to real values. They say that this anticipation required by the decree sometimes had a negative impact, as it meant that a higher fee had to be proposed in anticipation.
“the Repeal of Decree No. 2417 of 1993 “This will represent a fundamental step towards liberalizing tariffs for non-state-owned enterprises, granting greater autonomy in economic management and adapting institutional performance to the real conditions of the current inflationary context, where this type of regulation has become clearly inappropriate, due to its rigidity and outdatedness,” said a statement issued by the ECB. Association of Private Education Institutes of Argentina (Aiepa).
“It is worth noting that in the Province of Buenos Aires, the aforementioned decree does not apply to subsidized enterprises since the jurisdiction has its own tariff system, which reinforces the residual and fragmented nature of the framework applicable at the national level,” he points out.
He stresses: “We cannot say whether this will affect the cost of fees less or more. But at least, those schools that in September had to do a calculation, without a lot of confirmed data, as there was a tendency to exaggerate for fear of not knowing the costs for the following year, in an inflationary framework, will be able to do a more realistic calculation. This has really hurt the school and the families. The scenario now is different. In the framework of controlled inflation, the impact on prices will be less.” Martin Zurita, Executive Secretary of Aiepa.
“Yes, it reduces bureaucracy, because it limits procedures. You have to put your energy in the classroom, in improving the school and not in completing papers that no one reads. What will happen is that the numbers that schools will collect will be more realistic depending on the cost structure. There is no one better than the school owner to know what he can give to the community, what he can charge, and what the community will pay. No one is going to want to charge value, so that parents can’t pay for it later, so that the school ends up closing,” says Zurita.
This change does not mean that at the end of the year schools will not receive an estimate for the following year’s fees. Zurita adds: “Now the schools will submit their reports, but they will submit their reports within the framework of reality. And when they see that they can report a real value before the end of the year.”
“This measure only affects unsubsidized schools. Subsidized schools, since January 2024, when the decree was repealed at the request of schools, no longer offer it. Subsidized schools throughout Argentina, since January last year, no longer offer it. Unsubsidized schools have continued to offer it. Now, unsubsidized schools will not have to offer it either. They represent 30% of the country’s total. In Argentina there are 14,000 private schools, 70% of which have the subsidy and 30% do not,” explains Zurita. This means that the procedure applies to approximately 4,200 private schools included in this standard.
Although this claim has been promoted by private schools for a long time, about two years ago, efforts to achieve change began with this government. So, although it does not come as a surprise, there are many schools that are calculating their cost figures for next year.
“We are very careful in our calculations. We are now assessing how this measure will affect us. We do not receive state subsidies. Our students belong to a population of medium and high means. There are no major problems in paying fees and we know that families can pay that and more. However, if there is a fee adjustment, the school will think very carefully. Because it is also a reality, our population has decreased. And although we still have a large core of families who can pay high amounts of fees, there are other factors that are starting to affect, such as declining enrollment rates, especially due to the lower Births We are a civic association, not a capitalist company, we have a tradition of starting families, we seek to support ourselves in the best possible way, increasing fees in the school is not a supply and demand when the school is not very profitable, since we have a negative context of low birth rate.
“The decree said that you had to inform parents of the previous year’s fees, on October 1, if you were an unaided school, and on October 31, if you were an aided school. A month later, you had to inform the monitoring agencies of the same thing. But the truth is that it ended up being ridiculous, because we all know that the Argentine economy makes it unpredictable, and that it is impossible for anyone to know on that date what fees they will pay,” says Rodolfo de Vicenzi, vice president of the Argentine Federation of Private Education Institutions. The following year. “So, in practice, what happened was that those fees were not maintained, and the fees had to be changed, and permission was sought from the jurisdictions, which sometimes took a while to approve, which hurt the parents because they had fewer fees left to be able to adjust the fees, and it ended up hurting everyone.”
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