PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AWASH WITH PUBLIC MONEY AND ENDOWMENTS, ARE POACHING PUBLIC SCHOOL STAFF

 

School	Donations 2017-2021 ($)	Investment Income 2017- 2021 ($)	Total ($)	Govt Funding 2020 ($)	Fees per Student 2020 ($)	C/W SRS Share 2022 (%)	Students in Top 2 SEA Quartiles (%)
Genazzano FCJ College	2,269,326	6,582	2,275,908	9,570,949	26,130		91
Penleigh & Essendon Grammar	462,337	1,775,869	2,238,206	29,339,681	15,737	115	92
St Leonard's College	1,959,000	259,000	2,218,000	13,827,847	26,171	117	95
Ballarat Grammar	1,220,063	929,288	2,149,351	22,409,280	12,536		81
Waverley Christian College	2,026,845	4,899	2,031,744	19,626,126	8,333	76	89
Mentone Grammar	1,319,853	643,786	1,963,639	10,386,945	22,338	104	90
Camberwell Girls Grammar	1,673,942	178,222	1,852,164	4,269,130	23,054	79	96
Sacre Coeur	1,081,123	691,118	1,772,241	4,224,205	21,214		94
Mentone Girls Grammar	1,584,287	155,590	1,739,877	9,121,122	22,520	97	93
Trinity Grammar	774,860	433,839	1,208,699	8,305,129	29,244	94	96
Camberwell Grammar	1,066,166	44,370	1,110,536	6,096,874	27,958	95	95
Total	214,568,320	84,350,050	298,918,370	483,855,098

*Donations and investment income for 2017-2020

Sources:

Donations and Investment income: Australian Charities and Not-for-profit Commission

Government funding, fees, % of students in top 2 socio-educationally advantaged (SEA) quartiles

According to the ABC, in the past 12 months, jobs advertised in inner-city private schools have offered base salaries up to $160,000, and rural principals have reported high offers in the regions too. Those salaries are tens of thousands of dollars higher than what the state system can offer most teachers.

In New South Wales, a state school classroom teacher's base salary tops out at $113,000, and in Victorian schools it is $112,000.

Some teachers will be able to top up their salaries through bonus and retention mechanisms but, with Australia facing an "unprecedented" teacher shortage, public school principals have told the ABC they still cannot compete on pay and conditions.Regional schools in particular are  losing teachers

John Freyne, the principal at Traralgon Secondary College in Victoria's Gippsland region, said several teachers had come to him asking for more money, having been offered higher salaries to work at local private schools.He said he could not match the offers.

"We're certainly not as free as private sector schools would be … [to] offer higher salaries," he said.Mr Freyne said his school was between four and six teaching positions short at the end of 2022.While shortages at Traralgon have been filled by relief teachers lured via state government-funded bonus payments, other principals are turning to teaching students to fill the gaps.

Fellow regional principal, Wodonga Middle Years College's Maree Cribbes, said she had recently lost a staff member to a private school, making her 13 positions short ahead of the school new year.

"Actually finding qualified teachers is not possible at the moment," she said.

Principals have 'never seen anything like this'Mr Freyne said the fact private schools get significant government funding, on top of their student fees, enabled them to pay higher wages to attract teachers.

"What they receive from the government would be 60-70 per cent of my total budget, so the federal funding provides them with a greater capacity to pay staff," he said. And while the Victorian public schools' enterprise agreement does allow teachers to earn an extra $10,000 as a "retention incentive", Mr Freyne said it was not a realistic solution because paying the bonus to every teacher would make school budgets unworkable.

Mr Freyne said he had "never seen anything like this" in his 34 years in the profession.

In December, the Albanese government announced it would extend the current funding agreement by one year, to allow time for a funding review.

It means the government's in-principle commitment to lifting government funding for public schools will be delayed for another year, which unions say will mean public schools continue to lose teachers to the private sector.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has acknowledged the scale of the problem.

"This is a real issue, principals and teachers have both talked to me about this," he said.

Mr Clare agreed "pay is important", but said fixing entrenched equity problems would take time and money.

AEU Victorian branch President Meredith Peace said these reports are extremely concerning, with this practice exacerbating the already serious staffing challenges faced by the state’s public schools.

“This is causing considerable stress and workload for principals, and puts at riskthe right of every child to have a qualified teacher in their classroom and/or access certain parts of the curriculum," says Ms Peace.

“What we are seeing here highlights the current inequity that exists between public and private schools.

"Victoria’s public schools are only funded to 90 per cent of the federally determined resource standard, whilst the majority of private and Catholic schools are already at or in excess of 100 per cent. This means public schools are not operating on a level playing field and students are missing out on aspects of the education they are entitled to, thus diminishing their educational opportunities.

“It should therefore come as no surprise that private schools are able to use their abundant resources to offer financial incentives and opportunities, that public schools have no capacity to match.

DOGS note that the current situation was predicted by their organisation in 1964. The overwhelming greed of the parasitic religious sector together with the privatisation policies of both the Labor and Coalition governments since the 1980s have led to an emptying of the public Treasury in favour of the wealthy and sectarian at the expense of the poor and vulnerable.

 

The only way forward is to abandon a failed policy and adhere to the policy of No State Aid for private schools and separation of religion from the State.

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