The government should sign contracts with private schools for migrant students to not only respect the rights of school owners but also to endow the government with the rights of supervision, says a signed article in The Beijing News. The following is an excerpt:

Good news comes for those private schools for migrant students in Beijing, which do not usually have fixed addresses. The Beijing municipal educational committee said recently that the city will provide idle public schoolhouses free for these schools. The government will also give them financial support.

This measure is undoubtedly wise. For a long time, these schools acquired schoolhouses by signing contracts with non-governmental bodies.

This way of acquiring schoolhouses has two problems. For one, school runners are usually not rich enough to rent large tracts of land in high cost cities like Beijing, which leads to the present narrow and unsafe school space for migrant students, with no basic school equipment like a playground and running track.

The other reason is that unstable lease relations with those non-governmental bodies force the runners to move ceaselessly for new abodes so that the regular teaching is often interrupted, which causes many migrant students to drop out.

Millions of migrant workers in Beijing are sure to be happy about this news since the idea of urging the government to solve the schoolhouse problem for their children has finally come true after years of efforts.

But one thing we should not forget is that school runners are seeking profits. Many have already made money. At present, the lion's share of the school operating costs for these owners lies in the renting fees of schoolhouses.

It would go against the intention of the government if these school owners can't put the money saved for using public schoolhouses to those matters beneficial to the school itself, such as the improvement of teaching conditions.

(China Daily July 21, 2007)