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Parents across NSW are spending more than $4.5 billion each year in school fees to give their child a private or Catholic education.
The 2024 figure is more than double what parents were paying 15 years ago, with spending fuelled by a private enrolment surge and fee hikes as a growing cohort of schools charge more than $50,000 a year.
The average NSW parent with children in private schools paid $15,000 in 2024 towards private school tuition, up from $8000 in 2009, according to Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority data. The figures have been adjusted for the consumer price index.
Principal economist at the e61 Institute Jack Buckley said the $4.5 billion that parents paid in 2024 lifted the burden from the NSW state government budget and onto the parent- and Australian government-funded Catholic and independent school systems.
“It is unequivocally a good thing if you’re just looking at it from the perspective of the state budget … that’s a lot less money the state government has to spend,” he said.
Buckley noted while education outcomes were similar for government and non-government schools, parents were clearly seeing a benefit in fee-charging schools whether it was through peer effects, greater choice or superior amenities.
“I trust parents are seeing something real which they value,” he said.
In purely academic terms, Australian private school pupils outperformed Catholic and public school counterparts in the latest round of Programme for International Assessment tests when results were adjusted for “student-level” socioeconomic status.
But when “school-level” background was also considered, any difference in performance between independent and government school students disappeared, an analysis by the Australia Council for Education Research found.
In other metrics, comprehensive public school performance is slipping. An analysis of HSC league tables last year found that, compared to 20 years prior, the number of non-selective public schools among the state’s top performers halved between 2002 and 2024.
In that time, fees have increased steeply as the proportion of non-teaching staff in private schools has grown, while teacher-student ratios have also improved, driving up wage costs for schools.
Chief Executive of Independent Schools NSW Margery Evans said there had been a rise in counselling and support staff to help with student and staff wellbeing.
“This has been the main reason for higher staff numbers over the past decade,” she said.
She said some schools spent more than $200,000 per year to protect their data and IT systems while others have also employed full-time cybersecurity experts.
“The cost of protecting schools from cybersecurity threats has increased markedly as attacks have become more frequent and sophisticated,” she said.
University of NSW economist Professor Richard Holden noted fee hikes meant some families with multiple children were spending a significant amount of their post-tax money on private school, noting some viewed it as an investment.
“As an economist, I don’t generally think a massive chunk of the population don’t know what they’re doing with their hard-earned money and one would imagine it has to do with educational outcomes, behaviour and the jobs market,” he said.
In 2025, public school enrolments fell for the seventh consecutive year, with 7000 fewer students in the public system compared to 12 months prior.
While there was a lower burden on the state budget, Holden said the “fairly fast, uneven movement” to private schools was creating its own problems.
That includes a reduction in subject options in the Higher School Certificate as the student population shrinks.
“One of the things I worry about a lot is the range of subject offerings for the HSC in public schools,” he said.
“If you’re a fantastic mathematics student, there’s a whole range of public high schools where you can’t do four unit and three unit mathematics.”
In the face of the enrolment slip, the state government this year introduced what is called a HSC subject guarantee, giving students access to chemistry, physics, science extension and economics and advanced maths courses they can study remotely.
Among the growing cohort of parents with children leaving public schools are Christina Yassa and her husband Mark. They originally opted to send their three children to the local public school.
“The school was two streets away – I thought, ‘I will just try it’,” she said.
“I didn’t like the fact they weren’t marking their homework,” she said.
At their new school, St Bishoy Coptic Orthodox College, she liked the structure, communication, the focus on the individual child and the disciplined environment.
“The homework they get now is structured and it is every day.
“They communicate really well with the parents— for instance in maths and science they will say, ‘we will pull them out and into a special development class if they require it’.”
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