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Elite private schools like Penleigh and Essendon Grammar and Haileybury College will get $20 million each more than they should between 2023 and 2028, a union study has revealed.

Haileybury College stands to get $20 million more than it should between 2023 and 2028, under the current funding model. Picture: Supplied

Victoria’s wealthiest private schools will receive half a billion dollars in overfunding from federal taxpayers over the next five years while needy state schools go without, a new report reveals.

Under the current funding model, schools such as Penleigh and Essendon Grammar and Haileybury College will get $20 million each more than they should between 2023 and 2028, a study commissioned by the Australian Education Union says.

This is because federal-state school funding arrangements haven’t kept pace with equity-driven Gonski modelling identifying how much money each school is entitled to receive.

In total, private schools in Victoria are set to receive half a billion dollars in government overfunding from 2023 to 2028.

This comes as state schools, which over the same period are set to be underfunded by $1.8 billion, struggle to find teachers and maintain buildings.

The report by education economist Adam Rorris calls for all public schools to be funded by 2028 to the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) which is the minimum level of funding agreed more than a decade ago by governments.

AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said the analysis exposed the shocking inequity of school funding.

“If governments can afford to overfond private schools by hundreds of millions each year, they can afford to fund every public school to their own minimum standard,” she said.

The funding highlighted by the union includes overpayments of more than $200 million to Catholic schools and $95 million to Ecumenical System schools.

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School in Keilor East. Picture: Mark Stewart

Education Minister Jason Clare said the federal government was “committed to working with the states and territories to get every school to 100 per cent of its fair funding level.

“The government will negotiate the next school funding agreement with the states and territories next year.”

Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said Victorian schools were being “desperately short-changed by the Allan Labor government”.

“The state government is delivering only 70 per cent of funding to public schools, not the 80 per cent required, which is driving inequity. In contrast, the Commonwealth is providing the requisite 20 per cent of funds to government schools.

“However, rather than hold state governments to account, the Albanese Government has sat on its hands,” she said.

A Victorian Department of Education spokesperson said: “We continue to advocate that the Commonwealth should increase its funding by five per cent of the SRS to ensure that Victorian government schools are fairly and fully funded.”