Public schools have long been under-funded for the learning challenges they face. In 2024, they were only funded at an average of 88% of their Schooling Resource Standard across Australia. By contrast, private schools were over-funded on average at 104% of their SRS.
The prime minister and education minister promised that the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement will fully fund public schools by 2034. This has already proved to be a false promise. New bilateral funding agreements with the New South Wales, Queensland, South Australian, Western Australian and Tasmanian Governments reveal that public schools will not be funded at 100% of their SRS by 2034 despite a significant planned boost in funding over the decade.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Our kid is due to enter primary school in a few years time, and the debate in our household is whether we can afford private, vs. moving to a catchment for a Top-50 ranked public school school, vs. using that money towards private tuition.
But it all feels like we’re just putting a lot more pressure on this generation to perform and succeed than what we had growing up. Surely that’s going to do more damage to them in the long term than any funding shortfall?
Nath@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
For Primary school it is less of an issue. What you do at home is more important than which particular school they attend. Read to them every night, have them read to you every night. Do spelling exercises each week. Be careful about what TV you put them in front of (Numberblocks good, Youtube bad) etc.
For High School, we went with the “move to good school catchment” method. It has worked out well for us, but damn is it expensive.
HalfEarthMedic@slrpnk.net 3 weeks ago
Its not necessarily clear from this article but all the NAPLAN data and other studies have shown that (in Australia) the school you attend has almost no influence on any valuable metric including academic success, long term income, self reported happiness etc. The factors that are most strongly predictive are parental income and parental education level.
Unless the public school has syringes in the sandpit save your money.
Nath@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
To an extent, this is true. It is certainly possible for a kid with drive and intelligence to excel at any school. The issues more arise from the other variables - if your kid is attending a school in a low socioeconomic area, there is a decent chance that the cohort do not prioritise doing well in class. Suddenly kids not only find themselves among peers where studying is not a priority, they find themselves disincentivised to do well so they don’t stand out.
If instead your child attends a school where it is socially acceptable to study and do well in class among their peers, they do.