AUSTRALIA. EXCLUSIVE private schools have warned parents that voting for the Labor party in the November 10 federal election could cost them thousands of dollars more in fees each year.
In what seems set to become a bitter election campaign around education spending, the private school sector has taken the rare step of publicly revealing its leanings.
Labor has promised that, if elected, it will cut $105 million (pound;36m) in federal funding from 58 of the top private schools and reallocate the money to the government school system and to teacher training. But private school heads have written to parents saying the Labor cuts would leave most of them with no choice but to increase their fees.
In a letter to parents at his school, the principal of Wesley College in Melbourne, David Loader, said fees there would rise by almost $1,000 (pound;334) a year if Labor won. Mr Loader told journalists that the school had not indicated to parents how they should vote but had simply “informed them of the implications” of electing a Labor government.
Other private school heads have told parents that their fees could rise by as much as $4,000 a year. “It’s going to be extraordinarily difficult,” one said. “We don’t know how we’re going to be able to respond, but we do know that fees will have to go up much higher than they would otherwise do if funding is cut.”
Labor leader Kim Beazley said schools on Labor’s “hit list” deserved to be stripped of their increased grants. “They’re beautiful schools. They don’t need the money,” Mr Beazley said. “We don’t want investments in privilege, we want investments in education.”
Under the present Conservative government, Wesley College would receive an additional $3.9m over the next three years. “It’s grossly unfair that they are receiving massive increases when the local public school, aside from inflation increases, is only getting an extra $4,000 a year,” said Michael Lee, Labor’s education spokesman.
