What Victoria’s wealthiest schools rake in from donations: Full list

A major analysis of Victoria’s wealthiest and most exclusive schools reveals what they are raking in from donations and investments. SEE THE LIST

A total of 44 private schools received nearly $300 million in the past five years, not including government funding.

VICTORIA’s wealthiest and most exclusive schools are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars through donations and investment income.

A total of 44 private schools received nearly $300 million in the past five years, which is not taken into account when calculating government funding.

Analysis from the Save our Schools public education lobby group said these lucrative sources of external funding contributed to the overfunding of private schools.

Despite earning huge amounts of money through private means, the 44 independent schools received $484 million in funding by the federal and state government in 2020 alone.

Scotch College has its own Act of Parliament to manage trust donations.

These taxpayer funds are not affected by the fact that nine schools alone received $175 million in donation funds in the past five years.

Melbourne Grammar alone received $43 million, Geelong Grammar $32 million and Caulfield Grammar $17 million.

Scotch College, which has its own Act of Parliament to help it manage its trust donations, received $31 million over the same period.

Five other schools made over $10 million in total, including Wesley College, Ivanhoe Grammar, Bialik College, Korowa and Xavier College.

Of the $300 million, donations counted for $215 million, with the rest made up of money made from investment funds from tax exempt organisations such as foundations, building and scholarship funds and others.

Geelong Grammar received $32m.

The average donations income of Victorian public schools in 2020 was $179 per student, compared to $5055 per student at Melbourne Grammar and $5784 per student at Geelong Grammar.

The Scotch College Act of Parliament was moved in 2001 by former Scotch teacher and former Liberal Opposition leader Robert Doyle. It was designed to enable the school to minimise the cost of administering more than 115 trusts bequeathed by old scholars and other investments. The “close connection between Parliament and Scotch College” was noted by a Labor MP.

Trevor Cobbold, a spokesman for the Save Our Schools lobby group said the income of donations and assets from wealthy schools dwarfed those of their public counterparts.

He said it exposes a “major flaw” in how private schools are funded.

Wesley College made more than $10m. Picture: Mark Stewart

“It means the schools are massively over-funded by the taxpayer,” they said. “A significant first step would be to end all government funding for wealthy, exclusive private schools.”

Philip Grutzner , principal of Melbourne Grammar, said the philanthropy “has been central to Melbourne Grammar School’s history and success since our earliest years, and we remain grateful for the ongoing generosity of our donors”.

“Our donors want talented students from all walks of life to be able to attend Melbourne Grammar, regardless of their circumstances,” he said.

The Herald Sun contacted other high-donation schools for comment.

The revelations come as the funding of schools is under national scrutiny by Education Minister Jason Clare, who has acknowledged that public schools are still not receiving their full allocation.

Mr Clare has committed to getting all schools “100 per cent funded”.