Is A Private School Education Really Worth The Money?

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Is it actually worth sending your child to a private school or will their education equally benefit from attending public school?

Annual fees at some of Australia’s costliest elite private schools are pushing $50,000.

With it costing the most it’s ever been for private school education, it’s time to look at what the data says on student performance in private and public schools.

Listen to today’s episode of The Briefing here:

What do students get for that eye-watering amount parents are paying each year? Or is public education a better option, even if they don’t have the fancy tennis courts and plunge pool?

In this episode of The Briefing, authors David Gillespie and Jane Caro reveal what the evidence tells us on what factors matter in getting the best education for a child in Australia today.

Mr Gillespie, who is also a father of six, determined had all his children went through private school, it would have cost over $1.3 million – a figure that was determined some 10 years ago.

Eventually, public school education was chosen for the children, but Mr Gillespie said he considered what was best for his children before making the decision.

“What I wanted to understand was paying money going to guarantee me a good result or putting it a different way, was not paying money going to mean that I wouldn’t get the same or as good, or even better a result,” he said.

When putting his book together, Free Schools, Mr Gillespie found, “If you take kids with the same demographic background and look at their results in a private school versus a public school, there is no difference.

“So, paying money didn’t make any difference.”

In this chat, you’ll also hear from Ms Caro, who compares the differences between public and private school education, including what they provide their students and the results they achieve.