Gold Coast private school fees are rising, but so too are enrolments. So what’s wrong with our state schools?

Gold Coast private school fees are rising, but so too are enrolments. Are they worth the grand total you’ll pay, asks Ann Wason Moore.

It’s an issue endured by thousands of Gold Coasters, but most are simply too afraid to go public when suffering from this very private problem.

I should know, because I’m one of them.

That’s right, my children attend a private school. And after receiving our latest account notice, I’m beginning to wonder whether I really did my homework before signing up for a total of 14 years of fees.

It’s not that the school has raised its rates significantly, it’s just that I made the mistake of adding up how many years - and how much - we have left to pay.

Given my children are entering years 9 and 10, I thought the grand total couldn’t be too bad.

Big mistake, huge.

Now, there is an easy solution to this … one that does not include opening my own Only Fans account: I could just send them to state school.

It’s a decision facing many other families, with Sarah Megginson, a Gold Coast mother of three and money expert with comparison site Finder, saying its Annual Parenting Report 2023 found 16 per cent of Queensland families were considering switching from private to public schools to save money.

However, despite the financial pressures, she says the majority of parents with children in private schools intend on staying put.

Fees are rising at Gold Coast private schools.

It’s a tough call to make.

I chose a prep-to-Year 12 school, which only exists in the private system on the Gold Coast, because I wanted my children to avoid the trauma I experienced when changing not just schools but countries in Year 9.

But there was another reason we went private … tales from friends who teach in the state system.

I’m not saying issues don’t occur in private schools, but there is a lot more leeway when it comes to removing the problem, or problem child, in the non-government system.

Look, choosing a private school comes at a very real cost. Whether families can afford it is one question, whether they need to is another.

While the number of children attending private high schools in Australia is growing, their results do not differ markedly from public schools.

“The results demonstrate that private schools are not associated with systematically higher average student achievement in primary or secondary school, nor with steeper trajectories of reading and numeracy from Year 3 to Year 9,” states a 2022 study in the Australian Educational Researcher.

Centre for Independent Studies education program director Glenn Fahey. Picture: Supplied

In fact, both Australian and international research shows that academic performance depends more on your postcode than whether your school is public or private.

“There are a lot more similarities between a local government school and a local non-government school, than there is between a government school in a less advantaged area and a government school in a highly advantaged area,” the Centre for Independent Studies education program director Glenn Fahey told the ABC.

“So, the key difference when we look at educational advantage and disadvantage is one based on postcode – not on school sectors.”

And you can see proof of that fact right here on the Gold Coast.

As the sea-change movement has swept the city, with our beachside suburbs swelling in price and socio-economic standard, so too have their local state schools.

Take Broadbeach State School, Miami State High and Palm Beach Currumbin State High, for example.

Where once they were considered rough and risky, now they have become highly sought after schools, topping NAPLAN tables and pinching private students with their excellence programs.

It’s a fantastic turnaround, and other schools such as Benowa, Beechmont, Southport and Varsity are also achieving amazing results.

Yet when it comes to switching my own kids from private to public, I’m scared. It’s not that I’m a state school snob, I’m just frightened to fix what isn’t broken.

After all, my children are happy: they love their friends, their teachers and their school.

Of course, this could have happened at a public rather than private institution. Regardless, it’s an outcome that I’m happy (well, resigned) to pay for.