Hayden Starr



Good news! Eastern suburbs private school Scots College will this week unveil their new $60 million faux baronial castle.

This line in the article is particularly hilarious

“Delays were blamed on acquiring sandstone slates from Scotland while architects toured Edinburgh to visit buildings designed by architect David Bryce in the planning stages. The cost of the total project was about double the original $29 million price tag.”

Our research: https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/taxpayers-subsidising-private-school-luxuries/

  • Tax deductions for private school building funds should be removed, as recommended by the Productivity Commission.
  • Four in five Australians agree that private school facilities should be accessible to community groups outside of school hours if taxpayers are funding their construction. 

Alexia op ed: https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/private-schools-public-subsidies/

In 2024, the Commonwealth Government will spend an estimated $29.1 billion on schools in Australia. More than half of this – $17.8 billion – will go to private schools, including those with Olympic sized indoor swimming pools (Cranbrook and Knox Grammar as well as many others), in-house baristas (Knox Grammar again), and those with an already extensive list of sporting fields and amenities, including on-site physiotherapy facilities (here’s looking at you, The Kings School and Trinity Grammar).

With some private schools in Sydney charging more than $50,000 per student this year, how can this be justified?

In addition to direct government funding, private schools take donations to their building funds, which are tax deductible. For some schools, these funds accumulate millions of dollars. At the risk of repetition – collectively, private schools get more Commonwealth funding than public schools. Could this help explain why enrolments in private schools are rising faster than enrolments in public schools? Is it surprising that parents want to take advantage of the tax-payer subsidised opportunity these facilities provide?

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Australia’s education system is unbalanced. It disproportionately favours those who are already advantaged. It gives public money and tax concessions to private schools that end up going to private beneficiaries. Already wealthy schools do not need a leg-up from the taxpayer. It’s fine for private schools to have building funds and ask for donations, but public money could be better spent on public schools. Removing the tax subsidies given to building funds would help support equity in school funding, instead of undermining it.