Qld’s richest schools revealed: Brisbane Grammar, Anglican Church Grammar top the list

Queensland’s top five richest schools made more money in five years than the poorest 300, exposing a major wealth divide. The top school raked in an insane $310m. SEE HOW YOUR SCHOOL COMPARES

Queensland’s top five richest schools made more money in five years than the poorest 300 combined, exposing a major wealth divide between public and private schools.

In an exclusive Courier-Mail analysis, five years’ worth of financial data from the MySchool database was collated to rank more than 1600 Queensland schools.

The data ranked them on 2017-2021 combined gross income - including fees, government funding, and other sources such as donations.

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It comes months before the National School Reform agreement between state and federal government expires later this year. Experts say the education sector now has the opportunity to balance the government’s school funding model.

Brisbane Grammar School earned $310m across the five years, followed by Anglican Church Grammar School with $273m, and St Peters Lutheran College with $271m.

For these top three schools, most of their earnings came from fees, charges, and parent contributions - which were at least $35m annually for each.

Kings Christian College and Brisbane Girls Grammar School rounded out the top five.

The combined five-year gross income for the top five richest schools was $1.33bn.

In stark comparison, the bottom 300 schools had a gross income of about $1.06bn, with 99 of the bottom 100 schools being public.

Hayman Island State School in the Whitsundays had to scrape by with $1.5m over five years, while the second most cash-strapped school was Arcadia Valley State School in South West Queensland with $1.7m over the same period.

Queensland Association of State School Principals president Pat Murphy said the funding divide “desperately” needed to be addressed to level out the playing field.

“No definitely not,” Mr Murphy said when asked if all Queensland kids had the same educational opportunities.

The five richest schools in the state made a combined $1.3b over five years. Picture David Clark

“We are trying our best, teachers and principals are working hard however there is definitely a funding divide. It’s something that does need to be addressed.”

Mr Murphy said the association hoped the state and federal governments were able to find a solution to fully fund Queensland state schools at 100 per cent of the School Resourcing Standard.

“It needs to be done before this generation finishes school, there is no point promising it in 2030,” he said.

“Queensland state schools have never had 100 per cent of SRS. It’s desperately needed.”

Mr Murphy said rural and remote schools – many battling geographical constraints – were vastly disadvantaged compared to city cousins.

Queensland Teachers’ Union vice-president Leah Olsson said the funding was “clearly inequitable” despite great student outcomes being achieved in state schools.

“State schools are in every community and educate all students. Proper resourcing needs to account for every student to achieve regardless of their academic level, geographic location and additional learning needs,” Ms Olsson said.

“We will continue to call on both the state and federal government to invest in public education, as resources delayed are resources denied.”

A small school in the middle of nowhere - Kindon State School had a five year income of just $1.8m, making it one of the poorest in the state.

Centre for independent Studies education policy director Glenn Fahey said schools receive more taxpayer funding if they are bigger, have more disadvantaged students, and are public.

“But the way that the Federal and Queensland governments distribute funds is different for public and for private schools, which can contribute to some unexpected anomalies,” he said.

“Importantly, when it comes to private funding gaps, there’s as much public-public disparity as there is public-private school disparity. That’s because the greatest inequality gap in schools comes from differences in postcodes, more so than differences in school sectors.”

Mr Fahey said the expiring National School Reform agreement in December and ongoing renewal discussions were an opportunity to even the playing field.

“The biggest opportunity must be to shift the conversation from inputs to schools to the outcomes from schools,” he said.

“We dedicate far too much time on debating how much funding goes to each school and not enough on how this funding could be best used. As ever, it’s the quality, not quantity of spending that matters for lifting student outcomes.”

Kings Christian College, which has campuses at Reedy Creek, Pimpama and Logan Village - had a five-year income of $242m.

Australian Catholic University senior education lecturer Dr Paul Kidson worked as a principal for 11 years in NSW private schools and experienced the school funding model.

“The last school where I was principal - we got a third of our total income from government funding, and two-thirds from fees. But when I was at another school in a low socio-economic area, we got 80 per cent of our total income from government funding,” he said.

It comes as negotiations for the next federal funding agreement ramp up ahead of its delivery in October.

A Department of Education spokesman earlier this month said the state government planned to negotiate with federal counterparts to get state school funding up to 100 per cent of the School Resourcing Standard.