Australia’s peak body for private schools has launched a ‘national education campaign’ to protect school choice for parents and put an end to the “blame game”.
The ‘School Choice Counts’ campaign, launched today by Independent Schools Australia (ISA), seeks to dispel what it calls “misleading rhetoric used to pit school sectors constantly pitted against each other” and instead encourage school sectors to collaborate and help the public understand how Australian schools are funded.
ISA’s initiative includes a campaign toolkit being distributed to over 1,216 schools, and “a clear case for fair, sustainable funding” to ensure that “all sides of politics hear the voices” of 716,000 students and their families.”
‘Children are now political footballs’
At today’s launch at Parliament House in Canberra, ISA CEO Graham Catt said the campaign came from feedback from educators and families around the country.
“They are saying enough is enough, that families who choose Independent schools deserve fairness,” Mr Catt said.
“Children are not political footballs. Families make sacrifices every day to give their children the best start in life. They should not be publicly vilified or penalised for choosing an Independent school.”
Catt said as the federal election looms, Independent schools are “standing up” for the students, parents, and communities who are “being targeted by misleading rhetoric and threats” of policy changes that could drive up school fees and limit school choice.
“Our policy priorities are designed to give families peace of mind that they won’t be forced to pay more for their child’s education in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis.”
Greens put ‘on notice’
Catt said ISA is also putting the Australian Greens “on notice” in response to what he called their “divisive class-war rhetoric, which unfairly misrepresents Independent school families.”
“There isn’t an Independent school parent, teacher, or principal who doesn’t support full funding for public schools. But this isn’t a competition,” Catt said.
“Students in our government schools should be fully funded, and so should those in Independent schools. Promoting the idea that funding public schools fairly means stripping funding from Independent school students is just wrong.”
Catt said The Greens “attack hardworking families with misleading and inflammatory rhetoric”.
“It needs to stop now. This election, we will make sure every Independent school parent knows who supports them—and who is wants to make their child’s education more expensive,” he said.
“We will be sending a loud and clear message with a targeted advertising campaign beginning today in 17 key seats—including those where Independent school families make up a significant portion of the electorate.”
The ISA’s campaign will also aim to “expose the myths” around how Independent Schools are portrayed.
“The attacks on Independent schools are ideological, not factual,” Mr Catt said. “Most Independent school families are everyday Australians.”
Catt said more than 60% of Independent school families come from low- and middle-income backgrounds, pointing out that the median Independent school fee is just $5,537 per year.
“Hundreds of thousands of working Australian families are being unfairly targeted in a political blame game.”
Disadvantage on the rise
The ISA’s campaign follows last week’s release of the ACARA 2023 School Finance dataset, which the Australian Education Union (AEU) says highlights growing disadvantage in Australia’s schools.
According to the data, private schools receive 27% more recurrent income per student compared to public schools, despite enrolling a lower proportion of students with additional needs.
The report also highlighted the capital expenditure gap, showing that in 2023, private schools spent $5.4bn more on infrastructure than public schools. In private schools, capital expenditure was 2.1 times that of public schools, up from 1.5 times in 2021.
“Public schools educate the vast majority of Australian students, including more students who face educational disadvantage, yet they are significantly underfunded,” AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said.
“This shortfall in funding to public schools means they are denied the vital resources that they need to deliver high quality teaching and learning programs. Public schools are lagging behind both in recurrent income per student and in money spent on school infrastructure, creating deep inequity and a two-tiered system.”
Speaking at the AEU Federal Conference last Friday, Education Minister Jason Clare noted recent progress that has been made on school funding in Australia.
“We’ve doubled what we’re offering the states. We will fund the full 5 per cent. What you’ve always asked for,” Claire told the conference.
“In return, we want the states to get rid of the 4 per cent that is spent on things like capital depreciation - what you have also been calling for. That’s a big shift.”
'Everyone should be able to afford the basics'
In a major $10bn pre-election pitch, The Greens recently pledged to scrap public school fees and give parents a back-to-school payment of $800 per child.
Under the plan, a family with two kids in a public school would be almost $2,500 better off every year, says Adam Bandt, Leader of the Australian Greens.
“In a wealthy country like ours, everyone should be able to afford the basics: a home, food, and world class health and education," Bandt said.
“When a nurse pays more tax than a multinational corporation, something is wrong. Taxing the big corporations to fully fund our public schools, scrapping so-called ‘voluntary’ fees and securing back to school payments will be on the table in a minority Parliament."
Greens spokesperson on primary and secondary education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne said the situation is so bad that teachers are increasingly having to dip into their own pockets to pay for classroom basics that many families simply can’t afford.
“When I was a teacher I regularly spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars of my own salary to give my students the resources they needed, and I know parents do the same," Senator Allman-Payne said.
"Every child deserves a free, world-class public education, and that’s what the Greens are committed to delivering."