Private schools to get a $2bn ‘bonus’

Elite private schools are getting a bigger slice of federal funding than expected, as the pandemic pushes more parents to choose a private education for their kids.

A fight over school funding will feature in the federal election. Picture: iStock

Private schools will pocket $2bn in bonus federal funding as $560m is siphoned from public schools over the next three years as more parents choose to pay for a private education.

A teachers’ union has blasted the “elitist” spending switch and will use its national conference on Friday to kickstart a campaign to unseat government MPs at the imminent election.

The Australian Education Union has a $3.5m war chest to campaign against the Morrison government in marginal seats, appealing to public school parents over Facebook, Instagram and other social media.

AEU president Correna Haythorpe attacked the federal government over “sneaky spending cuts” to public schools.

“We’ve got deep inequality in school education in Australia yet we have a private system that continues to receive special handouts,’’ she said. “It’s time for (Scott) Morrison to go and we’re asking parents to use their vote to change the government.’’

Based on student enrolment trends, the federal government will divert funds away from public schools and into private schools over the next three years, a comparison of budget projections from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 budget papers reveals.

Private school enrolments have surged 6.1 per cent during the two-year pandemic – six times faster than enrolments in state schools.

Tuesday’s budget papers showed private schools would pocket $2bn more over the next three years than forecast in last year’s budget papers.

Public schools, which rely entirely on taxpayer funding, will be given $560m less than Treasury had forecast a year ago.

Both sectors will benefit from record increases in federal funding each year, although public schools will not get as much as they had expected while private schools will be given more.

The disparities are revealed in a comparison of federal “quality schools’’ grants to government and non-government schools ­between 2022-23 and 2024-25, based on Treasury’s estimates published last year and this year.

This year’s budget papers reveal quality schools spending on private schools in 2022-23 will be $16.1bn, compared with $15.5bn projected a year ago – an increase of $600m. For public schools, spending will fall from $10.42bn outlined in last year’s budget to $10.28bn – a cut of $140m.

In 2023-24, private schools will be paid $16.89bn instead of the $16.2bn forecast in last year’s budget – an increase of $690m.

Public school funding will fall from just over $11bn to $10.81bn – a cut of $194m.

In 2024-25, private school funding will go from $16.75bn forecast in last year’s budget to $17.46bn – a lift of $710m. Public school funding forecast a year ago to reach $11.45bn will be cut to $11.22bn – $229m less.

A spokesman for Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert said the government had made “no cuts to commonwealth funding to government schools in the 2022-23 budget … The figures … are based on enrolments across sectors, which fluctuate”.

“This fluctuation has ­increased the projection of record funding to all schools between 2018 and 2029 to $318bn – up from $315bn. To claim this is a cut to government school funding is simply wrong,’’ he said.

The AEU will target voters in Macquarie, Eden Monaro and Robertson in NSW, Chisholm in Victoria, Leichhardt, Flynn and Longman in Queensland and Boothby in South Australia.

In Western Australia, it will target Hasluck, Swan and Pearce; in Tasmania, it will target Bass and Braddon.