Real per student government spending on private schools grew by 3.7% a year in the decade to 2022 – a growth rate 60% higher than public schools, which only saw a 2.3% annual increase, new data shows.
The Productivity Commission's latest Report on Government Services also found that 31.4% of public school students had low Socio-Educational Advantage (SEA) status, compared to only 13.2% of students in private schools.
Just 1.3% of public schools in Australia have received 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), while 98% of private schools are being overfunded, the data shows.
Greens spokesperson on Primary & Secondary Education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, said the data shows that Australia’s school funding model is “catastrophically broken”.
“Australia’s school system is meant to be a great driver of equity and upward mobility, but it’s increasingly just another way the private sector extracts public money to enrich a privileged few,” Allman-Payne said in a statement.
“The promise of Gonski was a needs-based, sector-blind funding model that would direct spending to the kids that needed it most. But it’s clear the opposite has happened. The private sector is favoured above the public system, and poorer, regional and remote and First Nations kids are the ones who suffer.”
Allman-Payne said it is “now beyond debate” that public schools need to be funded to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) as “a matter of urgency”.
“Labor says it will introduce legislation to lock in new school funding deals, which is likely to put Greens in the balance of power on any future bills,” Allman-Payne said.
“We’ll use our numbers in the Senate to fight for 100% SRS funding to all public schools by January 2025, an end to the public overfunding of wealthy private schools and ongoing capital investment in public schools from the Commonwealth.”
Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, said while Australia has a good education system, "it can be a lot better and a lot fairer".
“At the moment, most non government schools are funded at 100 per cent of the Gonski level or above it. But outside of the ACT, no public school is," Minister Clare told The Educator. “That’s why we have put $16 billion in additional funding for public schools on the table."
Minister Clare said this funding would be "the biggest increase in Commonwealth funding to public schools that has ever been delivered".
“We have reached agreements with WA and the NT. I want to do the same with the other states and territories," he said. “This isn’t a blank cheque. This funding will be tied to reforms to help kids catch up, keep up and finish school."