[Greens-Media] Wealthy private school fee increases are unnecessary

[John Kaye]

Wealthy private school fee increases are unnecessary
 
Media release: 28 November 2008
 
Cost blowouts in elite private schools highlight extravagant expenditure and throw into doubt state and federal subsidies, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
 
Commenting on a story in today's Sydney Morning Herald ('Pay rises push up school fees to $24,000' page 3), Dr Kaye said: "Massive fees, topped up with generous taxpayer handouts, have allowed NSW's wealthiest private schools to spend more than 2.3 times the cost of educating a child in public schools.
 
"These elite institutions are highly inefficient deliverers of education compared to public sector education.
 
"King's, Ascham and SCEGGS Darlinghurst could have absorbed the cost of increases in teacher salaries by cutting back on extravagant building programs or reducing the massive over-expenditure in the classroom.
 
"Instead they have chosen to hit parents with fee hikes that run at more than twice the rate of inflation.
 
"Any suggestion that massive state and federal subsidies to these schools would make them more affordable has lost any credibility it might have had.
 
"Schools like Ascham and SCEGGS Darlinghurst receive more than $2,500 per student in state and federal subsidies. 
 
"King's College Parramatta received more than $4,000 per student in the 2007/2008 financial year.
 
"Yet each of these schools continued to spend on luxury items while pushing up fees by more than 6.25 per cent.
 
"Parents and taxpayers have every right to be angry. 
 
"No one can deny the right of teachers to pay increases.
 
"However, on-going uncompetitive public subsidies and parents willing to pay exorbitant fees have allowed these institutions to bloat their expenditure.
 
"It is time that both governments and parents took a knife to the wasteful practices of wealthy privates schools," Dr Kaye said. 
 
For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455 
 
 
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John Kaye
Greens member of the NSW Parliament
phone: (02) 9230 2668
fax: (02) 9230 2586
mobile: 0407 195 455
email: john.kaye at parliament.nsw.gov.au
web: www.johnkaye.org.au
 
mail: Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000