AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
Press Release 1017
The Rich are getting Richer
The ‘Needs’ policies of the last sixty years are broken.
Figures provided to Senate Budget Estimate 2022-23 show that NSW Independent schools were funded at 84.6% of their SRS by the Commonwealth Government in 2023 instead of the legislated target of 80%.
The new figures show that 52 Independent schools with a median taxable family income of $200,00 or more will be over-funded by $353 million from 2022 to 2028 by the Commonwealth Government. Of these, just 13 of these schools will be over-funded by $180 million. The 52 schools will receive $2.4 billion in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.
The most over-funded schools are St. Augustine’s College, Northern Beaches Christian School, Trinity Grammar, MLC School and Newington College (Table 1). Over-funding figures for other schools are in Attachment Table A1 which can be downloaded below.
These figures demonstrate that NSW Independent schools were funded at 84.6% of their SRS by the Commonwealth Government in 2023 instead of the legislated target of 80%.
The over-funding of the schools attended by the children of the rich is in stark contrast contrast to the under-funding of NSW public schools. Every public school is vastly under-funded. NSW public schools are only funded at 88.7% of their SRS in 2024. The under-funding amounts to $1.9 billion a year. This is entirely due to under-funding by the NSW Government. Its funding of public schools is only at 68.7% instead of the current benchmark of 80%.[i]
A more extensive analysis of the NSW rich school over funding is available on the Save Our School website at https://saveourschools.com.au/funding/private-schools-serving-richest-nsw-families-over-funded-by-millions/#more-5551
The only way around this problem is to follow the Scandinavian countries and withdraw public funding from private schools.
State Aid for public schools only!
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