Sydney private schools rake in $85m in taxpayer dollars

Sydney private school fees are soaring yet the city’s most affluent schools have been granted a combined $85 million in taxpayers’ money. Find out how much each school received here.

Sydney’s priciest private schools have raised fees three times higher than inflation over the last 25 years while accepting millions of dollars in government handouts, it can be revealed.

Teachers have demanded there is a “moral imperative” to reform the system with 12 per cent of public school children learning in demountables, while top private schools engage in an arms race of elite facilities.

The Daily Telegraph’s analysis of historic and current fees at 10 of the city’s most affluent schools has shown the average annual cost of tuition for a year 12 student has quadrupled between 1999 and 2024.

In 2022, those same 10 schools — where fees now meet or exceed $40,000 a year — reaped a combined $85.1 million in taxpayers’ money.

Tuition at Rose Bay’s Kambala School for girls has gone up 352 per cent, from just under $10,400 in the 1990s to $46,950 today.

But the consumer price index, a quarterly measure of household inflation, has only doubled in the same time period.

The government school in NSW earning the most funding is Cherrybrook Technology High School, with a combined state and federal total of $30.3 million plus a further $2 million in parent contributions and other income.

Demountable classrooms at The Ponds High School in 2019. According to the Teachers’ Federation, they now account for 12 per cent of all classrooms. Picture: Justin Lloyd

The King’s School received more than $14 million in state and federal funding in 2022, the most recent year of funding data available, for a total revenue of $92.2 million when fees and private fundraising are taken into account.

This difference has raised questions over whether private schools should receive so much public money, with some public schools struggling to pay for support staff for high-needs kids and demountables now accounting for 12 per cent of their classrooms.

NSW Teachers Federation president Henry Rajendra said responsibility to correct the balance lies with the Commonwealth, who have a “moral imperative” to do so.

“The physical condition of our buildings shows that we are underfunded,” he said.

Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill spent $125 million building a state-of-the-art Olympic-sized swimming pool and other fitness facilities.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car called for the federal government’s help to build new and upgraded public schools in her state, with its “once in a generation chance to fix” an “unfair funding system”.

“Public schools currently receive zero dollars in ongoing capital funding from the Commonwealth while it spends $300 million boosting private school facilities,” she said, referring to the Commonwealth Capital Grants Program for Catholic and independent schools.

NSW Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car has called on the federal government to provide public schools with capital funding, but stopped short of recalling funding for top private schools. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

However when asked if the $24.4 million flowing to those 10 private schools from NSW’s coffers would be withheld in future years, Ms Car would not be drawn, adding only that “it is not necessary to rob Peter to pay Paul”.

“All children are deserving of full and fair funding of their schools,” she said.

Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne said the current system is “conning taxpayers”, and called on both the federal and state Labor governments to “show some spine” in reforming the funding model.

“Billions of dollars in public subsidies are being poured into the richest schools … despite them raising fees way above inflation,” she said.

“If you’re a rich private school charging nearly $50,000 a year, why on Earth should you expect any extra cash from the public purse?”

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare refused to consider removing all taxpayer funding to Sydney’s wealthiest schools.

“I don’t want to break the Gonski model, I want to work with states and territories to finish it,” he said.

The recently built Centre for Science and Art at Abbotsleigh girls school on Sydney's North Shore. Picture: Australian Institute of Architects

The Australia Institute researcher Alexia Adhikari said with bilateral funding agreements already up for negotiation, both governments could make changes.

“This is really the time to reassess whether we have appropriate regulatory practices in place for private schools, to make sure our education system is equitable,” she said.

“When one school can have 17 sports fields … there is clearly an opportunity for reform.”

Senior school facilities at The King’s School, as seen in the school’s 2024 prospectus.

The King’s School’s grounds in Parramatta, as referred to by Dr Adhikari, are spruiked as an “unrivalled range of facilities that cater to every sporting requirement”. The school

Other elite private schools are winning architectural awards for their infrastructure projects, from the $125 million aquatic centre at Cranbrook to the $48.9 million ‘Scientia Terrace’ at Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney with its in-built fair trade cafe.

Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy College’s new Scientia Terrace has a fair trade cafe built in. Picture: Australian Institute of Architects/Martin Mischkulnig Hayball

The Scots College has also recently raised eyebrows for spending nearly $80 million on a Baronial-style castle for ‘student services’, made out of imported Scottish sandstone and slate.

In Richmond, students at a public primary school face sewage in the schoolyard, because the toilets remain on an old septic system that overflows after heavy rain.

Plans for the John Cunningham Student Centre at The Scots College, in the (very expensive) style of a Scottish Baronial castle.

At another primary school in Sydney northwest, parents are paying the wage of their sole learning support officer.

Association of Independent Schools of NSW CEO Margery Evans stressed that recurrent funding for schools’ operating costs is not used to fund new facilities, and to conflate the two “is misleading”.

“Those criticising non-government schools don’t seem to realise that they educate 460,000 students in NSW and do so at a considerable saving to taxpayers, because parents fund a significant portion of the cost through school fees,” she said.

Data from the Productivity Commission indicates expenditure is $8500 per student higher in public schools than in the non-government sectors.

“Independent schools are already accountable to at least seven government agencies for their funding and expenditure,” Ms Evans said.