Posted: January 12, 2005

Private schools - more handouts!!

A Sydney Morning Herald survey of 48 private secondary schools published on January 10 revealed an average fee increase of 8.3 per cent in 2005 with rises of up to 20 per cent. Journalist Linda Doherty notes: "Not one school surveyed will cut fees and the big increases involve the most expensive independent schools and Catholic institutions run by religious orders". If a person wants to fork out $18,000 this year to send their kid to Sydney Grammar then that doesn't particularly aggrieve me. What offends me deeply is the massive shift in Commonwealth funding from government to non-government schools.

The system of Commonwealth funding for schools is a complex beast that allows the Commonwealth, States and Territories to blame each other for the running down of our government schools. For a remarkably clear discussion of Commonwealth funding for schools since 1996 I refer readers to a Parliamentary Library Research Note published in March 2004 by Marilyn Harrington.

While the funding indices may be complicated to understand, the outcomes are not. Between 1995-96 and 2003-04 the share of Commonwealth schools funding going to government schools fell from 42 per cent to an estimated 33 per cent. And before anyone claims that the shift in funding between the two school sectors reflects parents voting with their feet and going private, consider the student numbers. Between 1996 and 2003 the share of total full-time students enrolled in government schools fell from 71 per cent to 68.9 per cent - a much, much smaller change.

In 1995-96, Harrington found that the Commonwealth Specific Purpose Payments (SPPs) to government schools were 0.28 per cent of GDP while the SPPs for non-government schools were 0.39 per cent of GDP. In answer to a Question on Notice at the 2004 Senate Estimates Hearing, the Department of Education, Science and Training estimated that "...government school funding will remain at 0.29 per cent of GDP between 2003-04 and 2007-08. Over the same time, Australian Government expenditure on non-government schools will rise from 0.56 per cent to 0.60 per cent of GDP". The Department's figures can be viewed HERE. The Minister for Education, Dr Brendan Nelson, seems just as committed as his predecessor, Dr David Kemp, to providing the greatest subsidies to those least in need or to those who choose to work a second job to afford their child a private school education.

The priority for public funding - Commonwealth, State and Territory - must be government schools. These are the schools that are required to provide education for all students regardless of income and wealth, ability and disability. If private schools want to open for business - and if the churches wish to divert a share of the resources they build up through generous Commonwealth tax exemptions and concessions - then let them do this with the Commonwealth as the regulator rather than chief sponsor. If parents are concerned about the quality of government schools then think what could be done with the Commonwealth cash that has been diverted to the non-government sector over the past 8 years.

The changes in Commonwealth education funding since 1996 have been acute and reflect the values and political priorities of the Government. They do not reflect what Dr Lyndsay Connors, Chairwoman of the NSW Public Education Council described in the Sydney Morning Herald as the nationally coherent and complementary policies which are needed to "sustain high quality and socially representative public school systems for the benefit of all".

Blog entry posted by bill