Private school funding increased twice as much as public schools’ in decade after Gonski, data shows

‘It’s clear that the implementation of Gonski has been a failure,’ said the Greens education spokesperson, Penny Allman-Payne, on the public vs private funding gap. Photograph: Johnny Greig/Getty Images

Real government funding to private schools has increased almost twice as much as funding to public schools in the decade since the landmark Gonski review recommended changes designed to fund Australian schools according to need.

From 2012 to 2021, per student funding to independent and Catholic schools rose by 34% and 31% respectively, while funding to public schools increased by just 17%, according to parliamentary library data provided exclusively to Guardian Australia. In Queensland, the growth in government funding to independent schools per student has been nine times greater than to public schools.