While the national average shows that private, Catholic and public schools spend about the same amount of money on their students, there is a wide disparity in spending by individual schools, ranging from $3000 a student up to $150,000 for a special needs pupil, say reports in the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald.
An analysis of the financial data conducted by auditing firm Deloitte for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority shows that Catholic schools spend the least per student running their schools, an average of $10,000.
Independent schools spend $13,700 educating each student and government schools spend $11,100.
The figures, to be released today on the federal government's revamped My School website, provide the first national comparison of how much revenue each school receives from state and federal governments, fees, charges, parent contributions and other private sources.
They show that private schools spend twice as much per student on capital works, compared with public schools, the Herald report said.
The Australian said that schools spending the most money are not the elite, high-fee private schools but mostly government schools in remote areas, those with fewer than 100 students or teaching students with disabilities.
The schools spending the least amount of money are mainly low-fee independent schools.
The new version of My School will be officially launched today at 10am, and includes for the first time the financial resources available to every school as well as the results from the national literacy and numeracy tests.
The students who first sat the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy resat the tests last year.
That enabled ACARA to track the progress the same group of students had made over the past two years.
The federal Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, who will launch the second version of the website, said it would engender a national conversation and help to ensure ''we are providing the best education we can for students'', he said
Mr Garrett said My School 2.0 was a "substantial step-up" in providing information to parents and the community, and would be a "game-changer" in the debate over school education.
The executive director of the Independent Schools Council of Australia, Bill Daniels, said while My School 2.0 was not perfect, it provided powerful information and was a significant improvement on the quality of data previously available.
The National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) said it welcomes the changes and addition of school financial data to the MySchool 2.0 website.
"The financial data on the website and the Australian Government current Review of Funding for Schooling will help clarify the facts about the amount of government funding received by Catholic schools," said Mrs Therese Temby, Chair of the National Catholic Education Commission.
"Australian schools, both Government and non-government, are funded differentially by Governments, both Commonwealth and State/Territory. Notwithstanding, all sources of income, including private sources and funds accrued from fundraising have been included in the calculations,'' Mrs Temby said.
FULL STORY
No class divide in schools spending (The Australian)
Independent schools spend more on their students, My School shows (Sydney Morning Herald)
National Catholic Education Commission welcomes My School data (Media Release)
PHOTO CREDIT
Screenshot from My School