The Australian Education Union today condemned a proposal from the head of one of Australia’s richest private schools to impose a new education tax on public school parents.

AEU Federal President Angelo Gavrielatos said the proposal by Dr Tim Hawkes represented an attack on one of Australia’s most fundamental democratic principles: the provision of free, secular public education for every child.

“Rather than acknowledge that we need to fundamentally reform a funding system that delivers the most money to schools like King’s that need it the least, Dr Hawkes is proposing a levy on every public school parent in the nation,’ he said.

“It is a cash grab from private schools and an attack on the fundamental principle that all Australians should have access to free public education.

“He says private schools should get more recurrent funding from government but the only additional money for public schools should come from the pockets of parents.

“The King’s school stands as a shining symbol of why we need a major overhaul of school funding arrangements.

“It has had a 237 per cent increase in Commonwealth funding since 2001 and its students are treated as more needy than those in any public school in the nation.

“Kings is funded regardless of its enormous wealth or income and has double the income per student of an average government school.

“Yet Dr Hawkes says public schools should continue to get about the same recurrent funding from the Federal Government and private schools should get significantly more overall.

“His claim that well-resourced private schools receive less government funding than public schools is also patently false.

As the My School website revealed there are private schools across the country getting more government funding than public schools.”