By Margery Evans
The latest analysis by public school advocate body Save Our Schools illustrates perfectly what is wrong with the school funding debate in Australia.
SOS convenor Trevor Cobbold uses average figures to inform readers that total income per student (ie, fees plus government funding) is some $8,000 higher per student in Independent schools than in public schools.
Of course, he offers no reason why that is the case, leaving the reader to assume there must be something improper or unfair about Australia’s student funding model.
The reason for the funding difference is perfectly legitimate because it is grounded in student need.
Mr Cobbold says nothing about the characteristics of students who attend “private schools” because he wants the reader to assume they are all from wealthy families and go to high fee schools.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
More than one-third of Australia’s school students now attend a non-government school and this proportion is growing each year, mainly in low fee schools; the median fee collected across Australia’s Independent school sector is just over $6,000 per year.
High fee schools are a tiny minority, making up less than 10% of schools in the Independent sector and just 2-3% of all Australian schools.
In NSW, there are more Independent schools charging less than $2,000 a year than charging $20,000 or more.
The simple truth, which Mr Cobbold never acknowledges, is that Independent schools enrol a high proportion of students with special needs who require higher government funding.
For example, there are 56,200 students with a disability in NSW Independent schools, representing 22% of the sector’s total enrolments (close to the NSW government school proportion of 27%).
More than 90% of these students attend a mainstream Independent school while the remainder are enrolled in 94 Special school campuses.
The cost to government of educating a student in a Special school (regardless of sector) can be anywhere from $40,000 per student to more than $80,000 per student, depending on the degree of disability and the school’s size and location.
For example, Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), the country’s largest autism-specific service provider, has eight main campuses and many smaller subsidiary campuses across NSW.
Aspect’s Macarthur campus attracted some $87,000 per student in government funding for its 135 students in 2024. Its Central Coast school attracted some $81,000 for each of its 122 students.
The presence of so many of special needs students in Independent Special schools naturally raises the average funding per student.
Less well known are the 60 Independent Special Assistance School campuses in NSW which educate almost 4,000 marginalised students, who are unable to study in mainstream school settings.
These students often attract double or triple the per student funding level of mainstream schools.
Here is something else for Mr Cobbold to consider.
The Independent sector now educates 52.3% of all NSW students enrolled in dedicated Special and Special Assistance schools (45.7% are in government schools and 2% are in Catholic systemic Special schools).
Mr Cobbold also claims that “real [government] funding increases” since 2009 have risen by 40% in Catholic schools and 43% in Independent schools — roughly double the 20% increase seen in public schools.
Again, he offers no explanation why this is completely legitimate.
So I will.
The funding model that all school sectors signed up to reduces the public funding paid to non-government schools by between 10% and 80%, based on a means test of parents’ income.
No such reduction is made for government schools, so their annual funding per student can only grow by indexation – which Mr Cobbold conveniently removes to create an impression of slower funding growth.
Funding has increased at a faster rate for non-government schools simply because newer students are predominantly from low to middle income families who attract more public funding per student – but always less than public schools attract.
In 2009-10, government schools attracted $14,380 per student in government funding – almost double the non-government school amount of $7,428 per student.
In 2023-24, the figures are $26,139 per government school student and $15,262 per non-government school student – no longer almost double, but a much wider gap in dollar terms than in 2009-10.
Lastly, Mr Cobbold needs to broaden his understanding of what constitutes a “private” school.
The overwhelming majority of student funding from government goes to low-fee (or no-fee) Catholic, Christian, Islamic, Adventist, Orthodox, Steiner, Montessori, Special or Special Assistance and other secular schools.
Educational idealogues are doing public schools no favours by taking pot-shots at non-government schools.
It’s well past time they acknowledged the socioeconomic and cultural diversity of Independent and Catholic schools, and the essential role they play in educating over 1.5 million Australian students of all backgrounds and abilities.
Margery Evans is Chief Executive of Independent Schools NSW, which represents 580 schools and campuses educating over 252,000 students.