St Phillip's Christian College principal Timothy Petterson has commended the federal government on Gonski 2.0 which went to the Senate this week for approval.
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But P&C members at public schools have been critical of the “watered down” version of the original that “continues to favour private schools”.
“All the funds should be given to the states and territories to make the system truly equitable,” Anna Bay P&C president Renee Thompson said.
Dr Petterson said Gonski 2.0 was fantastic.
“It's not looking at the school it's looking at needs to the child within the school and some of them have higher needs than others,” he said.
The government looked to the Greens and the Nick Xenophon Team for support to pass Gonski 2.0.
Dr Petterson said many parents had failed to realise that the state government was responsible for about 80 per cent of public school funding and that the federal government deal was simply a top up.
"The tax payer is getting a far better deal supporting private schools," Dr Petterson said.
Based on 2015 figures taken from the myschool.edu.au website each student at Tomaree High School received funds equivalent to $13,815 per child, of which $12,969 was government funding.
St Phillip’s received $10,467 per child – Dr Petterson said this was a significant savings of $2502.
Ms Thompson disagreed.
“Some schools have a higher proportion of disadvantaged students, the myschool site doesn’t give the full picture.”