Australian Education Union report reveals shock findings on school funding

Three quarters of Victoria’s private schools receive more government funding than comparable state schools, according to a new report that has prompted calls for urgent action.

Three quarters of Victoria’s private schools are getting more public funding than comparable state schools, a new report has revealed.

The latest research by the Australian Education Union (AEU) shows more than half of private schools in Victoria now receive more combined government federal and state funding per student than public schools of very similar size and student needs including location.

Using school finance data, the AEU report shows there were 504 private schools in Victoria in 2013 that received more combined federal and state government funding than comparable public schools.

By 2022, the analysis showed this had increased to 521 private schools.

There are 521 private schools that received more combined federal and state government funding than comparable public schools in 2022. Picture: iStock

The research also highlighted the largest gap between a private and public school in the same Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage (ICSEA) range and the same school size group was $7282 per student.

AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said the shock findings underlined the urgent need for public schools to be fully funded by all governments.

“Some private schools in Victoria are receiving up to $7282 per student more in government funding than similar public schools with very similar student profiles, in some cases those schools are just around the corner from each other,” Ms Haythorpe said.

AEU Victoria president Meredith Peace said: “Right now, school funding for the next decade is being negotiated between the Commonwealth and the Victorian government.”

“The urgency is clear and we call on Premier Jacinta Allan to fight hard for Victoria’s public school students in these negotiations,” Ms Peace said.

Meredith Peace is calling on Jacinta Allan to fight hard for Victoria’s public school students. Picture: Aaron Francis

“Public schools in Victoria educate proportionally 2.2 times the number of students from low socio-educational advantage backgrounds compared to private schools, and 3.3 times the number of First Nations students.”

Ms Peace said Victorian schools were not getting the funding they need to meet students’ needs.

“The challenges are too great and the cost of inaction too high for governments to continue to fail on funding,” she said.

A state government spokeswoman said: “The Commonwealth’s proposal will leave Victorian public school students $1000 worse off per student per year – we’re standing with our state and territory colleagues to fight for a better funding deal that won’t leave government school students and staff behind.”

“What we are asking is very reasonable when considering all the GST and taxation levers at the Commonwealth’s disposal.,” she said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said: “As a proud product of public education, I know how important it is, and I have offered the states and territories an additional $16b in funding for public schools, including $3.5bn for Victorian public schools.”