NSW public schools are raking in millions of dollars from hiring out facilities, private donations and charging fees while others in disadvantaged areas are being left behind despite the commitment of both state and federal governments to needs-based funding.
A Fairfax Media analysis of MySchool data shows that schools such as Sydney Boys High and Northern Beaches Secondary College are pulling in more than 25 per cent of their income from private sources, boosting their bottom line by as much as $3.98 million in 2014, the last year that public data is available.
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By contrast, a similarly sized school of more than 1000 students such as North Lakes High School in San Remo on the Central Coast was only able to raise $300,000 privately, while receiving $2.5 million more in total government funding, leaving it $1.5 million short every year.
The schools at the top of the list such as Mosman High, Normanhurst Boys and North Sydney Girls are overwhelmingly selective and in high socio-economic areas with strong alumni groups, but the government has refused to consider redistributing income gained from private sources into a pool of funds that could be redirected to those most in need.
In NSW, the Catholic Education Office in each diocese pools funding from private sources and redistributes it.
"This has been the practice since government funding was extended to Catholic schools and is based on fairness and equity," a NSW Catholic Education Commission spokesman said.
NSW Labor education spokesman Jihad Dib said schools such as Sydney Boys, which has a lucrative car park right next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, should not be punished for having advantageous facilities but that more emphasis should be put on schools sharing their resources.
"It takes the Lamington drive to another level," he said. "If they are using these funds to create better facilities then they should be able to give access to other schools in the region."
Education researcher Chris Bonnor from the Centre for Policy Development said the government needed to look closely at schools with substantial private funding.
"This shows the small scale of any equity problem that might be created," he said.
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said he welcomed parents contributing their time and money to support their children's learning and the greater school community.
"I've always encouraged parents to be as involved with their children's education as possible," he said.
"NSW has implemented a needs-based funding model which targets funding so students with the greatest need receive the most funding."
He cited not yet publicly available data that shows Cabramatta High School received $2.556 million in needs-based funding in 2016 compared with North Sydney Boys High School which received $308,421.
But researcher Trevor Cobbold from Save our Schools said his research showed the average private income for the most disadvantaged schools was $512 per student and the average private income for the highest SES schools was $2011 per student, up to four times more.
"There is [a] massive gap in the ability of high and low SES schools in Sydney to raise voluntary contributions from families," he said. "The inability of low SES schools to raise voluntary contributions makes it more difficult to provide adequate resources across the curriculum and to provide support services to students."
The leader of the needs-based Gonski education reforms, David Gonski, said that if money was given as a gift to the school, then it should remain there.
"If I like my old school and I am generous then it would be totally wrong if that money zoomed off into another area," he said.
Mr Gonski is now a pioneer with the Schools Plus charity which has allowed tax-deductible private donations to be made to needy public schools across the country for the first time.
He said it was a matter for the government on whether schools should pool income from their facilities or maintain their own funding levels.
"I can see arguments for both sides," he said. "Maybe they would say that they have this excellent facility maybe we give them slightly less money. That is up to them."
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