TURMOIL IN THE English Schools Foundation has once again turned the spotlight on the funding it receives from government.
Many in the local community are questioning why, in the post-colonial era, a group of schools offering British-style education should be subsidised by Hong Kong taxpayers, especially when many of the children in the schools are not Chinese and come from relatively wealthy families.
Other international schools have also long complained that the playing field is not level. Smaller international schools lose pupils and staff to the ESF because it can charge lower fees thanks to its government subvention, and it pays teachers at rates even the foundation admits to be among the highest in the world - with or without the proposed 4.42 per cent pay cut.
The release of former chief executive Jonathan Harris' highly critical letter of last June to then chairman Jal Shroff, in which he detailed serious concerns about the quality of the ESF, has inevitably fuelled arguments that the Hong Kong taxpayer should no longer foot any of the bill.
But before the Education and Manpower Bureau - eager to cut costs - takes any precipitous action, it is important to consider what the consequences would be for Hong Kong and the families who rely on its schools.
There is no doubt that the ESF is in crisis; five leading committee members having resigned in the past month and its efforts to appoint a new chief executive was a fiasco. The Harris letter could be seen as the final death sentence.