Misleading claims on Geelong school funding

The report on school funding in the Geelong region (‘Windfall for Colleges’, Geelong
Advertiser, 11 March 2018) gives a false impression of government funding for non-government schools.

The report is based on one source – comments by the Australian Education Union, which
opposes government funding to Independent schools.

Students in Independent schools cited in the report receive substantially less government
funding than students in government schools – in some cases it’s less than a third.

Overwhelmingly, the cost of their education is borne by parents who in fact save taxpayers
money. Almost all of the capital expenditure referred to in the report is paid for by parents
and other donors – not government.

Similarly, the report focusses on funds provided under the former funding model, not the
Australian Government’s recent Gonski 2.0 reforms. And it fails to mention the role of the
states, which entirely fund government schools.

These facts are not new, they are easily obtained, and we would have provided them to your
reporter had he contacted us in the interests of preparing a balanced report.

Instead, your readers have been given a misleading report, slanted with the use of loaded
language and shaped entirely by a source with an ideological agenda.