Author: Trevor Cobbold

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission show that 60 private schools serving the richest families in Australia raked in over $350 million from donations, investment income and other income in 2023. Shockingly, this money is ignored by governments when determining taxpayer funding of these schools. It is a fundamental flaw in how the Commonwealth Government funds wealthy, exclusive private schools. It means they are being over-funded compared to public and other private schools that do not have such privileged income streams. It is an inequity that must be ended.

Financial statements and reports lodged with the Charities Commission show that 50 schools with a median adjusted taxable family income of $225,000 a year or more received $354.5 million in 2023, an average of nearly $6 million per school, from donations, investment income and other income, such as from rental properties and hire of facilities. They received $110.4 million in donations, $46.3 million as investment income and $197.8 million in other income.

Continue reading “60 Richest Private Schools Rake In Over $350 Million  in Non-Fee Income”

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that 30 private schools serving the richest families in Queensland raked in nearly $100 million in 2023 from donations, investment and other income. Shockingly, this money is ignored by governments in determining taxpayer funding of these schools. It is a fundamental flaw in how the Commonwealth Government funds rich, exclusive schools It means they are being over-funded compared to public and other private schools that do not have such privileged income streams. It is an inequity that must be ended.

Financial statements and reports lodged with the Charities Commission show that 30 schools with a median adjusted taxable family income of over $200,00 a year received $97 million in 2023 from donations, investment income and other income, such as from rental properties, hire of facilities and sale of assets, up by $18 million over the previous year. They received $13.1 million in donations, $8.9 million as investment income and $75.1 million in other income. Of the 30 schools, 10 received $69 million from these sources. These 30 schools got $367 million in government funding in 2023.

Continue reading “30 Richest Qld Private Schools Rake In Nearly $100 Million  in Non-Fee Income”

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission show that 50 private schools serving the richest families in NSW raked in over $150 million in 2023 from donations, investment income and other income. Shockingly, this money is ignored by governments when determining taxpayer funding of these schools. It is a fundamental flaw in how the Commonwealth Government funds rich, exclusive private schools. It means they are being over-funded compared to public and other private schools that do not have such privileged income streams. It is an inequity that must be ended.

Financial statements and reports lodged with the Charities Commission show that 50 schools with a median adjusted taxable family income of $243,00 a year or more received $153.4 million in 2023 from donations, investment income and other income, such as from rental properties, hire of facilities and sale of assets, up by $40 million over the previous year. They received $48.7 million in donations, $27.3 million as investment income and $77.4 million in other income. Of the 50 schools, 27 received $132 million from these sources. Twelve received $91.5 million. The 50 schools got nearly $400 million in government funding in 2023.

Continue reading “50 Richest NSW Private Schools Rake In Over $150 Million  in Non-Fee Income”

New figures obtained from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) show that 50 private schools serving the richest families in Victoria raked in nearly $150 million in 2023 from donations, investment income and other income. Shockingly, this money is ignored by government when determining taxpayer funding of these schools. It is a fundamental flaw in how the Commonwealth Government funds rich, exclusive private schools. It means they are being over-funded compared to public and other private schools that do not have such privileged income streams. It is an inequity that must be ended.

Financial statements and reports lodged with the Charities Commission show that 50 schools with a median adjusted taxable family income of over $200,00 a year received $148.8 million in 2023 from donations, investment income and other income, such as from rental properties, hire of facilities and sale of assets, up by $19 million over the previous year. They received $43.8 million in donations, $27.9 million as investment income and $77.8 million in other income. Of the 50 schools, 22 received $120.2 million from these sources. Eleven received $84.5 million. The 50 schools got $416 million in government funding in 2023.

Continue reading “50 Richest Victorian Private Schools Rake in Nearly $150 Million in Non-Fee Income”

Private schools have a long history of adopting spurious and misleading arguments to defend their privileged over-funding by governments. It was on show again in a recent article by the NSW Association of Independent Schools (NSW AIS). It all serves to deflect attention from the indisputable bias towards private schools in the school funding system.

NSW AIS claims it is “trickery” to adjust for inflation when measuring changes in government funding. It is standard practice to adjust for inflation to exclude the effect of salary and price changes in order to measure changes in the quantity of real resources such as teachers and education materials in both public and private schools. In fact, private schools practice their own form of “indexation,” by generally increasing their annual fees at a rate faster than the inflation rate.

What NSW AIS is really complaining about is that they receive a reduced amount of the base Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) according to the “capacity to contribute” (CTC) of families to pay school fees. The implication is that private schools should receive the same level of government funding as public schools. This would extend their already huge resource advantage over public schools and contradict the Gonski principle of directing funding to those most in need, the overwhelming majority of whom attend public schools.

Continue reading “Independent Schools Put Up a Smokescreen to Distract from Over-Funding”

The Prime Minister and Education Minister, Jason Clare, have claimed that the Abbott Government cut school funding by $30 billion. The Prime Minister repeated the claim in the first election debate with Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton. Dutton denied that school funding was cut. The claim is an issue in the election campaign a result of equivocal and contradictory statements by the Opposition on the new funding agreements between the Commonwealth and state/territory governments.

Continue reading “The $30 Billion School Funding Cuts – Fact Check”

The new school funding agreements announced over the past few months represent an historic achievement by the Albanese Government. They promise full funding for all public schools after a decade of sabotage of the Gonski funding plan and neglect of public schools by successive Coalition governments. Full funding of public schools offers the prospect of increasing equity in school outcomes. However, there is considerable uncertainty as to whether the promise will be fulfilled.

It is important to understand the state of play of the funding agreements between the Commonwealth and state/territory governments in the context of the Federal election. Will they truly deliver full funding for public schools and when? Is the Coalition’s promise to match dollar-for-dollar genuine? Will the agreements ensure fair funding for all schools? These are pivotal questions.

Continue reading “School Funding Agreements Fail to Guarantee Full and Fair Funding for Public Schools”

A new review of research studies conducted in the United States shows once and for all that money matters in education. The study provides a comprehensive review of research studies on the relationship between school expenditure and student outcomes. Its finding is conclusive – money matters. The review also reviews studies on how money matters by analysing mechanisms whereby more expenditure improves student results. It is the most comprehensive review for many years.

The key findings of the review are:

• Increased funding for schools yields improvements in test scores, school completion, tertiary attainment, lifetime earnings, and other outcomes.
• Spending on both current operations AND capital investment increase student outcomes.
• The benefits are particularly strong for economically disadvantaged students and districts where states have historically underinvested.

Its conclusion is emphatic:

This review shows that a consistent flow of analyses since the mid-2010s, using better data and more sophisticated methods, have confirmed and elaborated on decades of prior research on the importance of adequate and equitable funding in K-12 schools. [p. 41]

Continue reading “Review of Research Studies Shows Money Matters for Student Achievement”