The education minister is demanding answers about the public funding of an exclusive Melbourne private school after *The Age* revealed the school was spending $85 million on a new sports complex.
The high-fee Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC) in Burwood gets thousands of dollars more in federal money per student each year than many of Victoria’s top private schools under the Commonwealth’s complex funding formula.
But after the price tag for the college’s aquatic and sports complex was revealed by *The Age* last week, Education Minister Jason Clare ordered his department to review the socioeconomic assessments underpinning the $9.2 million the school received from Canberra in 2022.
Commonwealth funding per student at the 150-year-old school came to $6285 that year, 55 per cent higher than the average funding of $4060 per student at the rest of Victoria’s top 22 private schools. The above-average funding for PLC’s 1471 students amounted to about $3.25 million in income for the college in 2022.
Of the state’s elite private schools, only Geelong Grammar – where King Charles studied for six months when he was a teenager, and where fees topped $50,000 this year – and upmarket Catholic school Genazzano came close to PLC’s per-student funding from Canberra, with $5514 and $5220 respectively.
The higher-than-average federal funding for the PLC, where year-12 fees topped $38,000 this year, was based on a “capacity to contribute” (CTC) score – determined by the Education Department – of 103, commensurate with school families earning just above-average incomes.
But nearly 80 per cent of PLC families are in the top quarter of income earners, and the college sits in the top 1 per cent of schools on the government’s Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage.
Clare told *The Age* that he ordered his department to review PLC’s CTC score.
“I have asked my department to review the CTC score for this school and how it was arrived at,” the minister said.
A departmental spokesman said: “The work is underway.”
PLC, which has consistently said its new $85 million sports complex is being funded by cash reserves, private fundraising and non-government grants, told *The Age* this week: “PLC … receives funding in accordance with the current Schooling Resource Standard.”
Economist Adam Rorris, who managed the federal government’s school resourcing taskforce and has advised the World Bank on the economics of education, said Australia’s “highly inefficient” school funding system had led to a situation where the country’s [richest schools had more money](https://www.theage.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5f6pa) than they needed
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Pay wall article.
Post the name of the school or delete the post
Swimming in cash apparently.
The education minister is demanding answers about the public funding of an exclusive Melbourne private school after *The Age* revealed the school was spending $85 million on a new sports complex.
The high-fee Presbyterian Ladies College (PLC) in Burwood gets thousands of dollars more in federal money per student each year than many of Victoria’s top private schools under the Commonwealth’s complex funding formula.
But after the price tag for the college’s aquatic and sports complex was revealed by *The Age* last week, Education Minister Jason Clare ordered his department to review the socioeconomic assessments underpinning the $9.2 million the school received from Canberra in 2022.
Commonwealth funding per student at the 150-year-old school came to $6285 that year, 55 per cent higher than the average funding of $4060 per student at the rest of Victoria’s top 22 private schools. The above-average funding for PLC’s 1471 students amounted to about $3.25 million in income for the college in 2022.
Of the state’s elite private schools, only Geelong Grammar – where King Charles studied for six months when he was a teenager, and where fees topped $50,000 this year – and upmarket Catholic school Genazzano came close to PLC’s per-student funding from Canberra, with $5514 and $5220 respectively.
Commonwealth [funding per child at Victoria’s government schools](https://www.theage.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5exn1) – which receive most of their funding from the state – averaged $3200 in 2022.
The higher-than-average federal funding for the PLC, where year-12 fees topped $38,000 this year, was based on a “capacity to contribute” (CTC) score – determined by the Education Department – of 103, commensurate with school families earning just above-average incomes.
But nearly 80 per cent of PLC families are in the top quarter of income earners, and the college sits in the top 1 per cent of schools on the government’s Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage.
Clare told *The Age* that he ordered his department to review PLC’s CTC score.
“I have asked my department to review the CTC score for this school and how it was arrived at,” the minister said.
A departmental spokesman said: “The work is underway.”
PLC, which has consistently said its new $85 million sports complex is being funded by cash reserves, private fundraising and non-government grants, told *The Age* this week: “PLC … receives funding in accordance with the current Schooling Resource Standard.”
Economist Adam Rorris, who managed the federal government’s school resourcing taskforce and has advised the World Bank on the economics of education, said Australia’s “highly inefficient” school funding system had led to a situation where the country’s [richest schools had more money](https://www.theage.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5f6pa) than they needed