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The state’s wealthiest inner-city colleges are raking in up to 100 times more than some small, cash-strapped rural schools, new data reveals.
All-boys’ St Peter’s College, which charges $29,450 in year 12 and spans across 32ha of “magnificent grounds” on the edge of the Adelaide CBD, boasts a five-year gross income of almost a quarter of a billion dollars.
In contrast, at public Port Neill Primary School, on the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula, the corresponding gross income is just over $2.5 million.
An independent analysis of school financial records from the MySchool website reveals huge disparities in school coffers across the state.
The figures include all fees, charges and parental contributions, as well as state and federal government funding and any other private sources.
The state’s 10 top-earning schools in the five years from 2017 include independent, Catholic and public schools.
But total income tells only part of the story. Nazareth Catholic College in Adelaide’s west, for example, sits fourth overall with a five-year gross income of $172,608,378, reflecting a 35 per cent growth from 2017 to 2021.
But its per-student income in 2021 of $18,544 was only around half that of independent schools St Peter’s College at $36,456, Scotch College $36,497 and Prince Alfred College $35,134. And tiny public Port Neill Primary, which had 16 students last year, had per student income outstripping them all at $49,310.
There are huge discrepancies both between and within every category of school. Some public high schools, for example, run on $14,000 per...