The Sunday Age reported yesterday on further evidence of the over-funding of private schools. According to the article by journalist Noel Towell, “The federal education minister is demanding answers about the public funding of an exclusive Melbourne private school after The Age revealed the school was spending $85 million on a new sports complex.”
The article continues:
Commonwealth funding per student at the 150-year-old school came to $6285 that year, 55 per cent higher than the average funding of $4060 per student at the rest of Victoria’s top 22 private schools. The above-average funding for PLC’s 1471 students amounted to about $3.25 million in income for the college in 2022…
Commonwealth funding per child at Victoria’s government schools – which receive most of their funding from the state – averaged $3200 in 2022…
The higher-than-average federal funding for PLC, where year-12 fees topped $38,000 this year, was based on a “capacity to contribute” (CTC) score – determined by the Education Department – of 103, commensurate with school families earning just above-average incomes.
But nearly 80 per cent of PLC families are in the top quarter of income earners, and the college sits in the top 1 per cent of schools on the government’s Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage.
