Economist Trevor Cobbold from Save Our Schools has exposed further evidence of the over-funding of private schools, due to a flaw in the way funding needs are assessed. Trevor’s article begins:
Some private schools have acknowledged that many grandparents pay school fees. In effect, this is an admission that they are over-funded by the taxpayer because payment of fees by grandparents is not counted in the assessment of the need for government funding. This assessment is based just on the capacity of parents to pay the fees. The result is that private schools are over-funded by governments by even more than shown by official figures.
The article shows how the ‘bank of Grandma and Grandad” tips the scales in favour of private school funding, and also details other ways in which the funding system ignores significant income available to private schools, and therefore over-funds them.
As always, Trevor’s article is meticulously researched and gives strong evidence of the unfairness of our school funding model.
