Cuts to education funding are contributing to an increase in student fees at Catholic schools in Sydney and forcing others in NSW to review their financial support for students to attend World Youth Day celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
The diocese of Broken Bay in the Pennant Hills area has increased fees by 5.7 to 6 per cent this year, instead of the usual 5 per cent.
In a letter to parents, the director of schools of the Catholic Schools Office, Peter Hamill, said the changes were necessary to meet cost increases and ''to compensate for the freeze on grants from the state government which were announced in 2012''.
Schools in the Sydney Catholic education system will raise student fees by 4.2 per cent this year, up from last year's 3.7 per cent increase.
A spokesman for the diocese said the rise was due to the annual increase in education costs, which this year included the state government's $1.7 billion cut over four years in the education budget.
The director of 78 Catholic schools in Parramatta, Greg Whitby, said his students would face fee increases this year at the usual level of about 5 per cent, but he could not make the same guarantee for the next three years.
FULL STORY Catholic parents told to expect increases as funding cut (SMH)
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