Searchable database of how much parents are contributing to every South Australian school
New data shows how much parents are contributing to each of SA’s public schools – at some of them it’s more than $2000 a year.
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Parents are contributing as much as $2670 a year for their child’s public education, which is more than for many private schools.
Data from the federal MySchool website shows “fees, charges and parent contributions” exceeded $2000 at 11 of Adelaide’s public high schools in 2017, while it was under the $2000 mark for 25 Catholic and independent schools across the state.
At public schools, principals and governing councils determine base fee levels known as the “materials and services charge”, which are subject to parent votes.
This year they averaged $282 for primary and $434 for secondary.
An SA Education Department spokeswoman said the MySchool figures also included costs such as charges for specific subjects, specialist programs, laptops, camps, excursions and international student fees.
“The amount reported by MySchool will differ depending on the amounts charged for the different types of programs and activities that occur at each school,” she said, adding the department did not keep details of what every school charged for. Brighton Secondary was the highest in 2017 at $2670, but has previously said it appears higher than others because some schools managed to exclude laptop charges from their reported figures.
The department said families approved for School Card assistance did not have to pay materials and services charges. For others struggling financially, payment plans were available. At more than 20 public schools, including Aboriginal ones, parents made contributions of between $0-100. Among independent schools, parent contribution was highest at St Peter’s College on $22,221, with Scotch, Seymour, Prince Alfred College and Pembroke all over $20,000. Lowest was Crossways Lutheran at Ceduna on $668.
Loreto was highest in the Catholic sector at $15,140, ranging down to $1384 at St Joseph’s in Renmark.
Catholic Education SA director Neil McGoran said fees were kept “as low as possible”.
“All our schools offer fee subsidies to families under financial pressure,” he said. “We recently reduced the fees at St Mary Magdalene’s School at Elizabeth to $250 per year (parent contribution averaged $1642 in 2017 for that school) to make the school more accessible to local families.”
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