The reporters interviewed almost 60 organizations (administrations, local authorities, networks of facilities, teachers, etc.) to assess the public funding allocated to private educational facilities, which educate 17% of students in France (2 million) and are financed” by at least 75% by public authorities”.
Public resources in favor of the sector amount to 9.04 billion euros in 2024, but “despite the sums at stake”, the allocation of this expenditure is “not very transparent”, “without a systematically defined and eminently political legal framework”. “, sorry .
A model largely favorable to the private sector
They point to a lack of “budgetary visibility” on the part of state spending, especially when it comes to remuneration accompanying students with disabilities, as well as “lack of transparency in accounting” on the part of local authorities.
Public expenditure dedicated to private institutions (95% of which are Catholic) is “in any case undervalued”, the MPs add. So much so that the funding model, which is based on an 80:20 ratio between the public and private sectors, is currently “more favorable to private institutions”, according to the report.
Another observation: the “frequency and depth of checks” are “grossly inadequate”.
Budgetary controls are insufficient, according to the report, which mentions state association agreements “tacitly renewed from year to year” without verification.
Lack of educational and administrative control
The document also points to “blind spots” in the facility’s educational control, particularly the “proper application of provisions relating to the teaching of religion”.
Administrative checks are based only on “rare reports”, as the Averroès Muslim High School in Lille or the Stanislas College in Paris criticize MPs who ask that inspection reports be made public.
“The compensation required from private facilities is far from the level of funding, which is evidenced by the deterioration of social and educational diversity,” the two deputies add.
To enhance this diversity, Christopher Weissberg suggests that it should be mandatory to take into account the index of social location (IPS) in the “resource allocation model”.