“Comparisons in the Sydney Morning Herald of government funding to northern suburbs Catholic schools and western suburbs government schools utterly fail to acknowledge structural realities,” said Independent Education Union of Australia Federal Secretary Chris Watt.
“Why wasn’t the question asked as to how those same northern suburbs Catholic schools compared to neighbouring government schools?”
“If such a comparison was made one would find that Mercy Chatswood receives less than Chatswood High, Holy Cross Ryde less than Ryde Secondary and Mater Maria Warriewood less than Barrenjoey High.”
“The simple answer is that location is important and the key driver of costs in schools is salaries.”
“What we know is that the age distribution of teachers across systems, government and Catholic, is not homogeneous.”
“There is a much greater concentration, in both Catholic system schools and government schools, of experienced teacher on higher salaries in the northern suburbs than in the western suburbs.”
“This is a classic example of the distortion put out by an increasingly desperate public school lobby,” said Mr Watt.
Contact:
Chris Watt
Federal Secretary Independent Education Union
Ph (02) 6273 3107 0419 259 143