Shocking Over-funding of Private Schools at Expense of Public Schools Must Stop

The shocking but unsurprising revelation that 130 private schools were overfunded by a total of $120 million should shake up Federal and State Education Ministers to unwind past mistakes in how taxpayers’ money is distributed to schools, said Jane Caro.

“The debacle that is driving inequality in our school system and our society must be addressed – it’s one of the main reasons I am standing in this election – to give public education and people who can’t afford private schooling a voice,” said Caro.

The reason school achievement continues to decline says author and former school principal Chris Bonnor AM is that  “We’ve created a system that puts the most advantaged kids together in advantaged schools and leaves the 'strugglers' largely in a class of their own …It's the elephant in the room that we lumber around and the avoidance has reached diabolical proportions, every new Federal or State Education Minister will do anything rather than address that central problem but until we address that central problem we're in strife,

Chris Bonnor was speaking with Jane Caro in her Reasonings webinar. He said that instead of solving the inequality in our education system, the implementation of the Gonski reforms entrenched disadvantage:

“We thought that the kids who were funded the least and who had the greatest needs would be properly funded and that would create an incentive for schools to enroll more of the strugglers, but that didn't happen because the funding was hijacked by the stipulation enforced on Julia Gillard that no schools would lose a dollar.”

“No other country in the world takes public money to subsidise wealthy schools to the extent Australia does, said Caro. “We we're using the school system to drive segregation and entrench disparity and inequality by putting the most money (in total) behind the children who need the least and the least money in total behind the kids who need the most resources.”

Most shocking revelations in the Teachers Federation report:

• 36 private schools received between $1 million and nearly $7 million in extra funding.
• 43 schools – including some charging fees of more than $35,000 a year – were given between $250,000 and $1 million extra a year.
• Public schools missing out on $1,633 per student every year, while private schools are overfunded by $647 per student.
• The entire public school system sits more than 10 per cent below its minimum SRS funding levels since the adoption of the Gonski needs-based funding model in 2013.

 “This is an outrageous misuse of taxpayers money and deprives a generation of children of their educational potential just because of their circumstances and where they live, and it has to stop,” said Jane Caro.