Private school funding has increased at five times rate of public schools, analysis shows

Government funding for private schools has increased at nearly five times the rate of public school funding over the past 10 years according to new analysis, with predictions of a $74bn shortfall in money for public schools this decade despite the shift to a needs-based scheme.

Trevor Cobbold, an economist and national convenor for Save Our Schools, disputed claims by state and commonwealth governments that all schools had enjoyed increased funding.

While commonwealth funding of state school students increased by $1,181 over the decade, state spending dropped in that time by $478 per student, the analysis found.

Under the reform, overfunded independent schools would have their funding brought down to the SRS benchmark by 2029 while underfunded public schools would have their funding increased.

However, Cobbold said there was an average shortfall in public school funding of $6.7bn per year between now and 2029, a total of $74bn since the 2019-2020 financial year.

Additionally, he said the current funding agreement also allowed states to include in its SRS contributions spending on items not originally deemed part of the Gonski benchmark such as depreciation, transport and payroll tax.

Overall, in 2019-20 the commonwealth spent $3,246 on public school students and the states spent $11,935, for a total of $15,181. Meanwhile, the commonwealth spent $10,211 for each private school student and the states spent $2,978, a total of $13,189. The figures exclude user cost of capital, depreciation, payroll tax and school transport as these items are not included in the funding figures for private schools.

Cobbold said the upcoming federal election provided an opportunity to recast education funding as a key policy area, or else inequalities in funding would worsen over the rest of the decade.