Catholics blame Gonski for hikes

Catholic schools along the east coast are warning families that fees will rise as much as 12 per cent next year.

Mater Christi College principal Mary Fitz-Gerald with students Lauren Baker, left, and Sophie Clarke yesterday. Picture: Aaron Francis

Catholic schools along the ­nation’s east coast are warning families that fees will rise as much as 12 per cent next year, with many principals attributing the steep hikes to federal funding changes.

In Brisbane, elite Stuartholme School, Marist College, Mt St ­Michael’s College and All Hallows’ School have announced tuition fees will increase next year, ­blaming government-mandated changes to the way funding is distributed that will see some schools lose income over coming years.

Genazzano College in Melbourne has recently written to parents to advise that fees would rise 6 per cent next year, with the middle school — Years 9 and 10 — hit the hardest. It is understood that De La Salle College, in Malvern, is considering increasing fees up to 7.5 per cent, while Loy­ola College, in Watsonia, will be forced to increase fees above its typical annual rise.

Loyola principal Joseph Favrin said the rise was a result of the new Gonski 2.0 model of funding, “which will reduce our funding considerably for 2018 and ­beyond”. The school’s board will meet shortly to set next year’s fees.

Catholic Education Melbourne, which oversees more than 150,000 students across 330 schools, is expecting primary-school fee rises of up to 5 per cent and secondary-school fee increases of up to 10 per cent.

Mater Christi College principal Mary Fitz-Gerald said the school’s fees would climb 6 per cent next year as a result of the school’s government funding allocation dropping by more than $300,000, or 3 per cent.

 

She said the school, in Belgrave in Melbourne’s east, had lowered fees a few years ago to allow more parents access to the college and a Catholic education, but that would have to change.

“We know parents require predictability ... but we can’t provide predictability,” Ms Fitz-­Gerald said.

Catholic Education Commission NSW, which oversees 545 schools, has said it would absorb any funding anomalies across the system, keeping fee increases to 3 to 5 per cent next year.

However, there are 46 independent Catholic schools that are funded directly from the government that could be exposed. Many of those, including Kincoppal, which is run by the same religious order as Stuartholme, and Loreto Kirribilli, were recently identified as being “over-funded”. Those schools did not return calls from The Weekend Australian.

Amid anger among parents over the rises, some Coalition MPs, particularly those in vulnerable seats, are understood to be rattled by the ferocity of the Catholic sector’s campaign against the funding changes and have asked Education Minister Simon Birmingham to meet directly with affected schools. Several MPs have described the issue privately as “political poison”.

The Catholic sector says the changes amount to a $1.1 billion disadvantage compared with the independent private schools ­sector. Senator Birmingham is standing by the government’s Gonski 2.0 package, which he insists amounted to a boost of funding to the Catholic sector of $282.5 million next year and $3.4bn over the coming decade.

He said state and territory systems running Catholic schools had autonomy over how they distributed increasing funding and it was up to authorities to decide which schools should benefit from additional support.

“We pay lump sums to Catholic school systems. We don’t actually determine which of their schools should get what amount of funding; they do,” he said. “If those systems are increasing fees for these schools, logic says that the extra funding flowing from the Turnbull government means that fees are decreasing by equal amounts at other schools.

“Given Catholic system funding is projected to increase by 3.8 per cent on average per ­student over the next four years ... the question many will ask in response to stories like this is ‘where is the money going?”

Senator Birmingham is expected to travel to Melbourne next week for meetings set up by Liberal MPs Julia Banks and Sarah Henderson. It is understood those meetings are not exclusively with Catholic schools.

The government believes the funding issue is most sensitive in Victoria because of the activism of Catholic Education Commission of Victoria’s executive director Stephen Elder. He told The Weekend Australian that Catholic systems had been put under unprecedented pressure to align their fee expectations to the government’s funding model, which would have the impact of large fee increases in many schools.

National Catholic Education Commission executive director Christian Zahra warned there would be political ramifications, with Coalition MPs required to justify their education policy to constituents at the next election.

Additional reporting: Tessa Akerman