Private school funding in Australia has increased at five times rate of public schools, analysis shows

By the end of the decade private schools are projected to be overfunded relative to the Schooling Resources Standard benchmark, while public schools will will not even hit 91% of the target. Photograph: courtneyk/Getty Images

Government funding for private schools in Australia has increased at nearly five times the rate of public school funding over the past 10 years according to new analysis, with predictions of a $74bn shortfall in money for public schools this decade despite the shift to a needs-based scheme.

The analysis compared combined commonwealth and state government funding for schools in 2009-10 to 2019-20, based on the Productivity Commission’s report on government services, released earlier this month. It was conducted by the public school advocacy group Save our Schools.