Trevor Cobbold – Page 2

A Golden Age of Tax Concessions for the Rich

Trevor Cobbold / April 13, 2023 / Funding

New data released by the Australian Treasury in February shows it is a golden age of income tax concessions for the rich. Tax concessions for the wealthy in Australia are at unprecedented levels. They benefitted nearly $40 billion from seven major tax concessions in 2019-20. The avarice of the rich is robbing disadvantaged schools and other public services of much-needed revenue. It has huge social and economic costs.

The latest tax expenditure statement (now called Tax Expenditures and Insights Statement) shows that the top 10% of taxable income earners received $39.1 billion from just seven forms of tax concessions. The total revenue forgone from these seven tax concessions in 2019-20 was a$84.4 billion and 46% of this went to the top 10% of income earners.

50 Wealthy Private Schools Raked In Over $600 Million in Donations & Investment Income

Trevor Cobbold / March 20, 2023 / Funding

The wealthiest, most exclusive private schools in Australia are raking in millions of dollars in donations and investment income. These millions are ignored in assessing the need for government funding. This is a major flaw in how private schools are funded. The flaw means the schools are massively over-funded by the taxpayer. Funding of private schools must be overhauled.

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that 50 private schools received $611 million in donations and investment income over five years from 2017 to 2021 (see table below). Donations totalled $461 million and investment income was $50 million. Just 10 schools raked in $291 million, or nearly one-third of the total of donations and investments. The average income from these sources was $12.2 million per school over the five years. This is in addition to their income from fees and other charges.

Wealthy WA Private Schools Rake in Millions in Donations

Trevor Cobbold / March 9, 2023 / Funding

The wealthiest most exclusive private schools in Western Australia are raking in millions of dollars in donations and investment income. These millions are ignored in assessing the need for government funding. It exposes a major flaw in how private schools are funded. The flaw means the schools are massively over-funded by the taxpayer. Funding of private schools must be overhauled.

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that 11 WA private schools received $69 million in donations and investment income over five years from 2017 to 2021 (see table below). Donations totalled $53.2 million and investment income was $15.8 million. Just one school, Christ Church Grammar, raked in over half the total of donations and investments. The average income from these sources for the other ten schools was $3.3 million per school over the five years.

Wealthy Qld Private Schools Rake in Millions in Donations

Trevor Cobbold / March 5, 2023March 5, 2023 / Funding

The wealthiest most exclusive private schools in Queensland are raking in millions of dollars in donations and investment income. These millions are ignored in assessing the need for government funding. It exposes a major flaw in how private schools are funded. The flaw means the schools are massively over-funded by the taxpayer. Funding of private schools must be overhauled.

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that 23 Queensland private schools received $118 million in donations and investment income over five years from 2017 to 2021 (see table below). Donations totalled $84 million and investment income was $34 million. Just nine schools received $83 million over the period. The average income from these sources for the 23 schools was $5 million per school over the five years.

Wealthy NSW Private Schools Rake in Millions in Donations & Investment Income

Trevor Cobbold / February 22, 2023 / Funding

The wealthiest most exclusive private schools in NSW are raking in millions of dollars in donations and investment income. These millions are ignored in assessing the need for government funding. It exposes a major flaw in how private schools are funded. The flaw means the schools are massively over-funded by the taxpayer. Funding of private schools must be overhauled.

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that 41 NSW private schools received $287 million in donations and investment income over five years from 2017 to 2021 (see table below). Donations totalled $226 million and investment income was $61 million. Just eight schools received $146 million over the period. The average income from these sources for the 41 schools was $7 million per school over the five years.

Wealthy Victorian Private Schools Rake in Millions in Donations & Investment Income

Trevor Cobbold / February 13, 2023February 13, 2023 / Funding

Victoria’s wealthiest most exclusive private schools are raking in millions of dollars in donations and investment income. It exposes a major flaw in how private schools are funded. These millions are ignored in assessing the need for government funding. It means the schools are massively over-funded by the taxpayer. It shows that the funding of private schools must be overhauled.

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that 44 Victorian private schools received nearly $300 million in donations and investment income over five years from 2017 to 2021 (download table below). Donations totalled $215 million and investment income was $84 million. Just nine schools received $175 million over the period. The average income from these sources was $6.8 million per school over the five years. Each of the 44 schools received more than $1 million over the five years.

Private Schools Had the Biggest Funding Increases and the Biggest Falls in School Results

Trevor Cobbold / February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 / Equity in education, Funding, Public education

Some of the commentary on the Productivity Commission report on the National Schools Reform Agreement drew a simplistic and highly misleading link between increased school funding and results. It ignored the key facts that Catholic and Independent schools had the largest funding increases since 2009 and the largest declines in international test results. The figures suggest that private schools are much less efficient that public schools, especially given that public schools enrol the vast majority of disadvantaged students.

Government Funding Failures Have Stoked Shocking Inequity in NSW School Outcomes

Trevor Cobbold / January 29, 2023 / Equity in education, Funding

The following is a summary of an Education Research Paper on NSW school outcomes and funding. It can be downloaded below.

The latest NAPLAN results show shocking inequalities in school outcomes between highly advantaged and disadvantaged students in NSW. Very high proportions of low socio-economic status (SES), Indigenous and remote area students do not achieve national literacy and numeracy standards compared to very small proportions of high SES students. By Year 9, low SES, Indigenous and remote area students are several years of learning behind their high SES peers. There has been very little progress in reducing the learning gaps between rich and poor over the last decade or so.

Labor Kicks the Public School Funding Can Down the Road

Trevor Cobbold / January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 / Funding

Prior to Christmas, the Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, announced that the current National Schools Reform Agreement (NSRA) will be extended for another year to 2024. It has major funding implications for public sools. It stops any funding increases for public schools which enrol the large majority of disadvantaged students and it continues an absurd arrangement that defrauds public schools of funding. Private schools will also get a relatively small windfall funding gain.

Shocking Inequalities in School Results

Trevor Cobbold / December 19, 2022 / Equity in education, Funding

The following is a summary of a new research paper by Save Our Schools analysing the latest NAPLAN results. The paper can be downloaded below.

The latest NAPLAN reslts shows shocking inequalities in school outcomes between highly advantaged and disadvantaged students in Australia. Very high proportions of low socio-economic status (SES), Indigenous and remote area students do not achieve national literacy and numeracy standards compared to very small proportions of high SES students. By Year 9, low SES, Indigenous and remote area students are several years of learning behind their high SES peers. There has been very little progress in reducing the learning gaps between rich and poor over the last decade or so.

The paper shows that 29% of low SES Year 9 students were below the national reading standard in 2022, 38% were below the writing standard and 16% were below the numeracy standard. One-third of Indigenous students were below the reading standard, 44% were below the writing standard and 19% were below the numeracy standard. Nearly one-quarter of remote area students were below the reading standard, 35% were below the writing standard and 13% were below the numeracy standard. By contrast, 3% of Year 9 high SES students did not achieve the reading standard, 7% did not achieve the writing standard and 2% did not achieve the numeracy standard.

These are shocking inequities. For example, it is totally unacceptable that the percentage of low SES Year 9 students not achieving the national reading standard is 9 times that of high SES students and the proportion of Indigenous students not achieving the standard is 11 times that of high SES students. Remote area 8 times.