Fighting for Equity in Education
//Save Our Schools (SOS) today called on the Commonwealth and state governments to end their stand-off on school funding. National Convenor of SOS, Trevor Cobbold, said:
“This disgraceful squabbling over cost-shifting by governments threatens the future education and lives of millions of students. It puts at risk government goals of increasing Year 12 completion rates and participation in tertiary education.
Continue reading “End the Stand-Off On School Funding and Adopt SOS 3-Point Plan”
//A new report by the Productivity Commission on Philanthropy has highlighted defects in the funding of private schools. The report shows that private schools receive millions of dollars in donations to school building funds that are heavily concentrated in highly privileged schools. It says these donations are not based on need and are not considered in determining the financial need of these schools for government funding. Schools in receipt of millions in donations serve the richest families in Australia who get a double benefit – lower taxable income because donations to school building funds are tax deductible and lower school fees as a result of the donations.
Private school building funds and other funds supported by donations have Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status which allows donations to be deductible from the donor’s income tax. As such, it is an indirect government subsidy to private schools. The Productivity Commission estimates the tax deduction costs about $100 million a year.
The Commission examined the total donations to school building funds only and also to multiple funds covering donations for school buildings, scholarships and library funds as well as funds operated by private school systems. It estimated that donations to school building funds only amounted to $69.4 million in 2020-21 across 719 schools. Donations to multiple funds amounted to $160.6 million across 736 schools. In total, donations to school building funds in 2020-21 and other funds amounted to $230 million across 1,455 schools.
Continue reading “Productivity Commission Exposes Private School Funding Defects”//Save Our Schools calls on the Federal Government to investigate the funding of the Exclusive Brethren school, OneSchool Global NSW. National Convenor of SOS, Trevor Cobbold, said that the revelations in The Guardian warrant a full Government inquiry into the legitimacy of Federal funding of the school. “The available figures strongly suggest that OneSchool Global NSW is being funded at a much higher level than is warranted.”
Mr. Cobbold said several aspects of taxpayer funding of OneSchool Global NSW warrant an investigation.
Continue reading “Call For Govt Investigation of Funding of Exclusive Brethren School”//New figures reveal scandalous over-funding of Queensland Independent schools serving the richest families in the state. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds are being squandered on just 19 highly privileged schools while public schools go begging. The new figures demonstrate the innate unfairness of school funding in Queensland. The Commonwealth and Queensland governments must ensure that public schools are genuinely fully funded under the next bilateral funding agreement.
The new figures show that 19 Independent schools with a median taxable family income of $200,000 or more will be over-funded by $141 million from 2022 to 2028 inclusive by the Commonwealth Government. Of these, just nine will be over-funded by $96 million. The 18 schools will receive $1.0 billion in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.
Continue reading “Private Schools Serving Richest Queensland Families Over-Funded by Millions”//New figures reveal scandalous over-funding of Western Australian Independent schools serving the richest families in the state. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds are being squandered on just 19 highly privileged schools while public schools go begging. The new figures demonstrate the innate unfairness of school funding in Western Australia. The Commonwealth and Western Australian governments must ensure that public schools are genuinely fully funded in future.
The new figures show that 16 Independent schools with a median taxable family income of $200,000 or more will be over-funded by $88 million from 2022 to 2028 inclusive by the Commonwealth Government. Of these, just seven will be over-funded by $63 million. The 16 schools will receive $693 million in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.
Continue reading “Private Schools Serving Richest Western Australian Families Over-Funded by Millions”//New figures reveal scandalous over-funding of South Australian Independent schools serving the richest families in the state. Millions of taxpayer funds are being squandered on just nine highly privileged schools while public schools go begging. The new figures demonstrate the innate unfairness of school funding in South Australia as in other states. The Commonwealth and South Australian governments must ensure that public schools are genuinely fully funded under the next bilateral funding agreement.
The new figures show that nine Independent schools with a median taxable family income of $200,000 or more will be over-funded by $54 million from 2022 to 2028 inclusive by the Commonwealth Government. Of these, just five will be over-funded by $39 million. The nine schools will receive $369 million in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.
Continue reading “Private Schools Serving Richest South Australian Families Over-Funded by Millions”//New figures reveal scandalous over-funding of Victorian Independent schools serving the richest families in the state. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds are being squandered on just 35 highly privileged schools while public schools go begging. The new figures demonstrate the innate unfairness of school funding in Victoria. The Commonwealth and Victorian governments must ensure that public schools are genuinely fully funded under the next bilateral funding agreement.
The new figures show that 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 10f these schools will be over-funded by $103 million. The 35 schools will receive $1.7 billion in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.
The most over-funded schools are Penleigh & Essendon Grammar, Ivanhoe Grammar, Mentone Grammar, Wesley College and Kardinia International College (Table 1). Over-funding figures for other schools are in Attachment Table A1.
Continue reading “Private Schools Serving Richest Victorian Families Over-Funded by Millions”//A new research study shows that many schools in Australia are manipulating their published school NAPLAN results by encouraging parents of low achieving students to withdraw them from the tests. The study shows that Independent schools resort to this practice more than other schools. It shows that Independent schools withdraw low-achieving students from NAPLAN at twice the rate of public schools. The study said the evidence indicated that some Independent schools were attempting to “game” the system of reporting school results on the MY School website.
The study found that Independent schools “game” their NAPLAN results much more than public schools. It found that the withdrawal rate among low performing Independent schools was twice that of public schools. Manipulating school results by withdrawing students was less prevalent in Catholic schools.
Continue reading “Independent Private Schools Are the Biggest Rorters of NAPLAN Results”//New figures reveal scandalous over-funding of NSW Independent schools serving the richest families in the state. Hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds are being squandered on just 52 highly privileged schools while public schools go begging. The new figures demonstrate the innate unfairness of school funding in NSW. The Commonwealth and NSW governments must ensure that public schools are genuinely fully funded under the next bilateral funding agreement.
The new figures show that 52 Independent schools with a median taxable family income of $200,00 or more will be over-funded by $353 million from 2022 to 2028 by the Commonwealth Government. Of these, just 13 of these schools will be over-funded by $180 million. The 52 schools will receive $2.4 billion in funding by the Commonwealth over the period.
Continue reading “Private Schools Serving Richest NSW Families Over-Funded by Millions”//A Victorian Labor MP has pleaded for a well-off Melbourne private school to be exempt from payroll tax to be applied to high fee private schools, despite having voted for the legislation. According to The Age, leaked letters reveal that Tim Richardson, pleaded the cause of Cornish College, which is in his electorate of Mordialloc, to be exempt from the introduction of payroll tax for high-fee private schools Richardson voted for the legislation that introduced payroll tax for schools with fees over $15,000 a year.
Continue reading “Victorian Labor MP Pleads Cause of Privileged Private School Crying Poor”