[Greens-Media] elite private school fee blow-out sounds alarm on dodgy funding system

[John Kaye]

Elite private school fee blow-out sounds alarm on dodgy funding system

Media Release 11 September 2006

The massive growth in the fees of many wealthy private schools 
underlines the failure of both state and federal government funding 
according to Greens NSW education spokesperson John Kaye.

Commenting on a story on page 3 of today's Sydney Morning Herald, Dr 
Kaye said: "The Howard government justifies its $5.2 billion annual 
subsidies to private schools by claiming it creates more affordable 
private education. An analysis of the fee increases over the last 
three years shows that that many of the elite institutions are 
actually becoming much more expensive.

"The Federal government funds private schools at a rate determined by 
the wealth of the parents' neighbourhoods. Some schools should have 
received less funding after a 2004 review showed some areas had risen 
in relative socio-economic status. Instead, there were protected at 
their 2004 funding levels.

"These schools are over-funded but the wealthiest amongst them are 
increasing their fees much more rapidly than other schools, even 
though they were given the special deal to protect them from the 
funding reductions the formula indicates they deserve.

"The data says that elite private education is a high demand industry 
charging whatever the market will bear. Increasing wealthy private 
school funding above the formula level does not bring down fees. In 
fact it does the opposite. More money going into a well-resourced 
private school pushes up fees.

"The evidence shoots down the federal government's claim that their 
funding system is designed to make private schools more accessible.

"The NSW state government continues to ignore the funding inequities 
introduced by the Howard government. These figures make it impossible 
for Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt to continue funding NSW's 
wealthy private schools.

"State and federal governments are pouring money into private 
schools, making them less affordable and starving public education of 
resources. It's a $5.2 billion a year policy failure," Dr Kaye said.

For more information:       John Kaye 0407 195 455


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John Kaye
phone: 0407 195 455
email: john at nsw.greens.org.au
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