A south-east Queensland school set to gain an additional $5000 per student by 2027 has cut its tuition fees to provide its community with "more choices", the school's principal says.
Warwick-based The Scots PGC College will reduce its annual tuition fees for students by 2018, in a move that took more than 12 months to consider, principal Simon Shepherd said.
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Private school slashes fees
A private school at Warwick is slashing its annual fees by 40 per cent because the cost has become "out of reach" for families.
Fees for students in years 8 to 12 will be reduced to $9500, a saving for parents of about $6000 a child each year.
"We identified that education inflation has grown far more rapidly than ordinary inflation," he said.
"Over the last 10 years school fees in the independent sector have blown out.
"(The school) has been linked to increasing operational costs, rising staff salaries being the major contributor to this.
"We have been looking at this ourselves and looking at the affordability of private education and the choice around the private education has become out of reach for many people.
"We looked at our area and ascertained that for us, our fees had grown more than people could afford."
The school's announcement to reduce tuition fees by about 40 per cent comes as a School Funding Estimator was released on Tuesday that calculates how the government's "Gonski 2.0" package will impact each school across the nation.
The government's new model aims to provide 80 per cent of the appropriate funding level, known as the Schooling Resource Standard, for private and Catholic schools by the end of the decade, which has meant cutting funding to those schools that exceeded the 80 per cent level and increasing funds for those that sit below it.
According to the online calculator, The Scots PGC College, which houses more than 400 students from prep to Year 12, will see federal funding per student rise by $5031 within 10 years, from $9637 in 2017 to $14,668 to 2027.
Mr Shepherd said the additional funds would be largely absorbed by gradual staff salary increases.
"Our increase in funding has been less significant than other schools within our region," he said.
"That (funding) will be accounted for in gradual staff salary increases, continuing growth and expansion, improving facilities and ensuring we have the appropriate staff.
"The funding is not far off our projections."
The Scots PGC College annual tuition fees for year 11 sit higher compared with the same year level in other secondary colleges across the area. Warwick Christian College charges $4570 a year for Year 11, while Assumption College charges $3508, not inclusive of camps or projects.
According to the Estimator, Assumption College was expected to receive a similar funding boost to The Scots PGC College of $5000 per student, raising funds to $17,212 by 2027, while Warwick Christian College's student funds would double by 2027 from $11,452 to $22,967.
The needs-based approach placed 26 schools in the firing line for funding cuts across the nation, including Hillbrook Anglican School and Cannon Hill Anglican College in Brisbane, while some 350 schools were expected to receive less federal funding by the end of the decade.
According to the School Funding Estimator, Hillbrook Anglican School was expected to face a cut of $2269 per student in funding, from $8030 in 2017 to $5761 in 2027.
Principal Geoff Newton hit out at the funding cuts last week, describing them as "harsh" and called instead for a freeze on funds.
Cannon Hill Anglican College was expected to face a $519 funding cut per student by the coming decade, dropping from $7077 in 2017 to $6558 by 2027.
*Correction: the original article stated Assumption College's tuition fees for Year 11 students was $7413. This was incorrect.