RICH KIDS, POOR KIDS
A FUNDING gap of around $10,000 per student a year divides public and private school students, new analysis shows.
Government funding to state schools is not keeping pace with parent fees, donations and other income flowing to private school students.
Total gross income per full time pupil at all school levels ranges from $15,520 for government students to $17,152 for Catholic students to $23,956 for independent school students, according to new Deakin University analysis.
Lead author Dr Katrina Macdonald and her team from Deakin University’s School of Education based their analysis on 2019 and 2020, and found the gap between students varies in different states.
It’s widest in Victoria, stretching from $14,416 for government students to $17,123 for Catholic to $25,944 for private school students – a difference of $11,528.
In NSW the gap between private and public schools is $9487, in ACT $6512, $1941 for NT, $5839 for Queensland, $5526 for South Australia, $6642 for Tasmania and $6582 for Western Australia.
The analysis includes total gross funding from all sources including state and federal funding, grants, parent fees, charges and income from private sources.
Schools near state borders illustrate discrepancies between states, with one government school in Victoria getting $14,710 per student each year in funding but another, 8km away across the NSW border, receiving $20,067. Both schools have a similar equity need and student profile.
Funding inequity is further exacerbated by differences in funding from private sources, with government students receiving $266 each a year, which is 22 per cent of the private funds of $1199 donated to independent private school students.
Dr Macdonald said this represents “an abdication of responsibility for adequately funding schools”.
“Where the Gonski reforms attempted to redistribute funding to schools in the service of equity through needs-based funding, politicians promised the non-government sectors they would not lose any of their funding. Subsequent political manoeuvring by powerful lobbies has seen increased spending in the non-government sectors,” she said.
Dr MacDonald concluded there is “little political will to address the incremental dismantling of public education”.
Australia’s funding system is described by one expert as “international worst practice, a recipe for gaming the system and for conflict”.
Dr MacDonald said the contentious increased government funding of private schools is coupled with “falling educational performance of Australia in global rankings”.
Dr MacDonald said the funding “has fed an ‘arms race’ for facilities of elite independent schools to attract students. Public moneys have been spent in these schools contributing to the construction of orchestra pits, wellness centres, auditoriums, playing fields, etc”.