A draft report by the Productivity Commission recommends stripping Australia’s non-government schools of a tax deductibility status which they have had for 70 years. The report entitled Future Foundations for Giving was commissioned by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. The overwhelming majority of non-government schools in Australia are Christian, prompting former Liberal MP Nicolle Flint to describe the move as “a template for further eroding our Judeo-Christian values”.
The report argues that donations to private school building funds should not be tax deductible because it does not provide enough “public benefit”. Commentator James Macpherson is stunned by that statement. He points out 1.4 million children, making up more than a third (35%) of the nation’s students, are enrolled in non-government schools.
He writes in the James Macpherson Report and republished in The Daily Declaration: “The logic — if one can call it that — behind such a move is so wafer-thin that there is little doubt this recommendation has zero to do with tax policy and everything to do with an ideological attack on non-government schools.”
“The report argues that the tax deductibility provision should be removed because some parents might donate to their school’s building fund in return for discounted fees, thereby getting taxpayer-funded tuition. But this is illegal. And as someone who was chairman of a large private school, and talking regularly with other private school chairs, I can assure you this simply does not happen. If it is happening, why has the government not named and shamed those schools and launched criminal charges against those involved?” Mr. Macpherson asks.
“Save Our Schools, an organisation that is advocating to strip tax deductibility status from private schools, further argues that private schools are over-funded. I’m sure that will be a huge surprise to the majority of non-government schools that charge low fees. Most non-government schools don’t charge fees to build amazing facilities; they charge fees to make up for the deficit in government funding. A public school receives around $20,000 a year in government funding per student. But a private school receives only around $12,000. So a school that charges student fees of $8000 a year is only just keeping pace with a public school”, the commentator explains.
“So every student in a private school is saving the government money. On that basis alone, private schooling is an enormous public benefit. If private schools were forced to close, the resulting tsunami of students into public schools would bankrupt the public system overnight.”
“The overwhelming number of private schools do not provide education for uber-wealthy families. They provide it to children of middle and lower socio-economic families who sacrifice in order to invest into their children’s education what little money they have left after paying their personal income tax.”
“If the relatively few high end private schools attract massive donations from hugely wealthy parents, of what business is that to the government? Good on those donors for wanting the best for their children and for the generations to come. And don’t forget, those donors are already paying huge tax bills that contribute to the public system.”
“The inescapable conclusion is that the Labor Government wants to penalise parents who dare to opt out of the public system. Leftists have long viewed public schooling as an essential tool by which to promote their ideas of social change. That’s why they hate private schooling, which robs them of children to indoctrinate.”
Mr. Macpherson also notes: “It is telling that the same review that recommended cutting tax deductibility from non-government schools recommended giving tax deductibility status to LGBTQ activist groups.”
