The Most Overfunded Private School in Victoria Named

In Victoria, 35 privileged schools whose parent groups have among the highest average household incomes in the country were the recipients of excess government funding.

The new figures were supplied to Senate Estimates by the Commonwealth Department of Education in May and reveal the schools with the highest median taxable family income. This is the first time family income figures for private schools have been published, previously, only income ranges were available.

The 35 Independent schools with a median taxable family income of $200,000 or more will be over-funded by $180 million from 2022 to 2028 inclusive by the Commonwealth Government. Of these, just 10 schools will be over-funded by $103 million. These 35 schools will receive $1.7 billion in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.

The most over-funded schools in Victoria are Penleigh and Essendon Grammar, Ivanhoe Grammar, Mentone Grammar, Wesley College and Kardinia International College.

Penleigh & Essendon Grammar parents have an average household income of $251,000, the school got $123,276,480 which means it was over funded by $24,064,524. Ivanhoe Grammar parents have an average of $267,000 coming in and the school received $93,087,402 in funds, an excess of $12,796,809.

Households whose children attend Mentone Grammar have an average income of $269,000, the school garnered $70,995,959 to be over funded by $11,476,986. Wesley College households earn an average $271,000, the school got $105,484,487 and so was over funded by $10,225,310.

Mount Scopus Memorial College had the highest median taxable family income of any Independent school in Victoria at $344,000 in 2023. Other schools had a median taxable family income of over $300,000 include Melbourne Grammar (336,000) Christ Church Grammar ($336,000), Loreto Mandeville Hall ($335,000), Scotch College ($326,000) and Melbourne Girls Grammar ($325,000).

Many families of students in Catholic systemic schools also have a median adjusted taxable income of $200,000 or more. The extent of any over-funding cannot be determined because Commonwealth funding and SRS shares cannot be obtained for individual Catholic systemic schools because funding is provided as a block to each system. However, figures provided to Senate Budget Estimate 2022-23 show that Victorian Catholic system schools were funded at 81.8% of their SRS by the Commonwealth Government in 2023 instead of the target 80%.

The total income of these families is likely to be higher because high income families account for the large proportion of deductions to reduce their taxable income. For example, Australian Taxation Office statistics for 2020-2021 show that 16 individuals with a total income $500,000-$1,000.000 had average tax deductions (excluding superannuation contributions and capital gains tax concession) of $1.3 million each, that is, their average adjusted taxable income was less than zero.