Inner Regional and Outer Metropolitan Independent Schools in Australia provide quality education options for discerning parents. Our families work hard to afford an education that meets the individual educational needs of their children.

COMAIRSA seeks fair and transparent Government funding to sustain parents’ choice of school.

UNFAIR MEDIAN INCOME FUNDING FORMULA

The Federal Government plans to use Australian Taxation Office data to calculate the median income of parents and guardians for each non-government school and allocate funding on this basis, assuming it measures the school community’s 'capacity to contribute' to the costs of schooling. Analysis of the statistics of this approach shows it will unfairly penalise certain schools.

OUTER METOROPOLITAN AND INNER REGIONAL SCHOOLS UNDER THREAT

For schools with broad demographics, the median income formula is likely to yield an unfair over-estimate of the Direct Measure of Income (DMI) score used to determine funding levels.

This will result in substantially reduced government funding, with some of our member schools losing over $ 4 million annually.

Under the DMI model, schools will be forced to raise fees substantially, and reduce resources and staffing, thus threatening schools’ viability. Many lower income families may no longer be able to afford rising tuition fees.

See our Mission Statement for a full explanation.

ANDREW NEAL

ACTING CHAIR

03 5366 4871

andrew.neal@comairsa.org.au

BRUCE SIMONS

ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE

03 5366 4871

bruce.simons@comairsa.org.au