Capital works spending by every SA school revealed
More than a quarter of the state’s public primary schools spent nothing on upgrades over a three-year period, while some private schools invested tens of millions of dollars.
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About a quarter of the state’s 350-plus public primary schools spent nothing on upgrades over a three-year period, and the vast majority spent no more than $100,000.
By comparison, only a handful of private primary schools made capital works investments of less than $100,000.
Advertiser.com.au today reveals capital works expenditure figures for all South Australian schools from 2015-17, which are the latest recorded on the federal MySchool website.
The SA Primary Principals Association, which represents public schools, said many had applications in for funding.
“Many primary schools would comment that they’ve got things that need doing and their own discretionary funding is limited,” president Angela Falkenberg said.
“There are some that would dearly love to have improvements.”
Labor was in power over the period covered by the figures, and Ms Falkenberg acknowledged the Liberal Government was now focused on upgrading high schools to take Year 7s.
“(But) everyone believes their needs are paramount in their own context,” she said.
As well as the 84 public primary schools that had no upgrades from 2015-17, another 90 spent under $20,000 and all up, 250 fell below the $100,000 mark. Only six public secondary or combined schools spent no money on upgrades.
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Opposition education spokeswoman Susan Close, who was education minister at the time, said in that period Labor had committed to investing $250 million in science and technology upgrades and $692 million to other projects across primary and secondary schools.
“Many of these projects have been completed in recent years,” Dr Close said.
Education Minister John Gardner said the Government, on departmental advice, was directing funding where it was needed most to meet enrolment demands.
“This is why we announced $185 million in additional school infrastructure in this year’s Budget to improve school facilities across the state, support sustainable enrolment growth in government schools and transition Year 7 into high school,” he said.
“We are investing $1.3 billion in capital projects, which includes over $300 million to schools that have a primary component.”
Private schools can receive capital works funding from the Commonwealth but they mostly have to fund their own projects.
St Peter’s College topped the upgrade spending at $29.9 million over the three years.
It took on $13.7 million in loans and received just $8135 in federal capital works funds.
Next was Concordia, which spent $19.7 million, and St Aloysius $16.9 million.
The top 27 schools for capital expenditure were private. While 21 public schools spent more than $1 million, none spent more than $5.5 million.
St Peter’s College, despite receiving less recurrent funding per student (year-to-year funding for operating, not for capital works) than almost all other SA schools, still received more than $22 million in recurrent funds from 2015-17.
Some experts, including the Grattan Institute’s Peter Goss, have previously argued that growing public recurrent funding of private schools has allowed them to quarantine parent fees and other private revenue for building projects, adding to inequity between the public and private sectors.
The counterargument is private schools save taxpayers billions of dollars every year because of the revenue they generate directly from parents.
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