Private school funding growing 3x faster than public school

The Productivity Commission’s annual Report into Government Services (ROGS) into childcare, education and training has shown that per-student total government recurrent funding to private schools has grown at 3.3 times the rate of public school funding over the last decade.

Australia is one of the few OECD countries that funds private schools with taxpayer money. The Australian Scholarship Group now estimates that sending a child to private school in Melbourne will cost $504,000 for the full 13 years, and that’s after tax.

ROGS showed that annual per-student growth in total government funding for private schools in 2017/18 was 3.4 percent, compared with only 1.5 percent for public schools, the Australian Education Union announced in a statement.

According to ROGS, nongovernment school funding per student grew by 3.3 times faster than public school funding per student in the last decade, a gap that has widened further in the last year. In the ten years to 2017-18 government funding for non-government schools rose by 35.2 percent. Meanwhile, per-student government funding for public schools was only increased by 10.6 percent in the same period.

Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe said the policies of the Morrison Government had entrenched the gap in funding growth between public and private schools. She added that under the Federal Coalition, 99 percent of public schools would be funded at less than the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) by 2023, while 100 percent of private schools would be funded at or above this benchmark.

“ROGS shows once again that per-student growth in government funding for private schools last year was more than three times greater than that for public schools,” Ms Haythorpe said. “It also showed government funding for public schools has grown by only 11 percent over the last ten years, whereas government funding for private schools has grown by 35 percent.”

“Public school student enrolments are soaring, yet the Morrison Government is ignoring the needs of two thirds of Australia’s school students by refusing to provide equitable funding for public schools.”

“This is patently unfair to Australia’s 2.6 million public school students, who deserve a high-quality and wellresourced education. The report is further evidence that the Morrison Government’s school funding legislation entrenches inequality, favours private schools and denies public schools the vital resources needed for our students,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“This is an appalling situation. Where is the equity?”

According to ROGS, in 2017-18 total government expenditure on VET fell by $252 million to a total of $6 billion, a decline of four percent from the previous year. Total annual hours of training provided by government expenditure continued to fall to 36.4 million, a decline of 6.4 percent from last year and of 30.6 percent from the 2012 peak.