AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT
SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 844
PRIVATE SCHOOL BUSINESS PLANS
IN TIME OF PLAGUE
Australia is officially in a recession according to Federal Treasurer Frydenberg.
The business plan of some private schools and their aspirational patrons is in freefall. Their fees have been rising, and rising, even though taxpayer funding has been rising – and rising – as well.
Thirty-six per cent of Victorian students attend a non-government school, the second-highest rate, next to the ACT, in the country. This leaves Victorians sensitive to price rises that have exceeded inflation for more than a decade. Last calendar year along, education costs grew by 2.9 per cent last calendar year, compared to a 1.8 per cent rise in inflation.
Source: ABS
In dollar terms, schools like Scotch College and Geelong Grammar, now charge fees of more than $40,000 a year. Scotch Boarding fees alone total $64,000 while those for Geelong are $72,000.
Others are : The Geelong College: $30,384 (Boarding: $54,888)
Melbourne Girls Grammar: $36,784 (Boarding : $65,468)
Methodist Ladies College $33,640 (Boarding: $63,321)
St Catherines Toorak $36,040 (Boarding: $66,520 +enter fee
Xavier College $30,740 (Boarding : $56,340)
But fees will now be frozen and jobs cut . Many school budgets have already come under pressure as parents seek fee discounts and deferrals.
There is a silver lining. Australia does not yet wholly depend upon a private, sectarian system for the education of all our children. There is still a public system, free, secular and universal that is available to all those insecure, now jobless parents who believed that they could buy privileges - and the pathway to heaven and the good job for their children. And this public system does not depend upon the vagaries of the ‘Market” for its survival.
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