That's the other thing about these schools - the school fees themselves basically just buy you the privilege to send your kid there. But then you still get ripped thousands more for pretty much everything else. And it's not like their uniforms will be cheap. You pay extra for any sporting activity, you pay extra for electronic devices, it's just a money grab from beginning to end.

And at the end of the day, the only thing you can say with certainty is that your education was expensive. But was it worth it? Was it better than a public school?

[–] metaStatic@kbin.social 6 points 8 months ago

the education is the same, legally, it's the social connections you're paying for.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Was it better than a public school?

Well, if you want to go by HSC results (and many people would consider that the yardstick) then there's many private schools among the top schools, although there's also lots of government selective schools, including the very top 4.

See: https://bettereducation.com.au/results/hsc.aspx

The highest-ranked private schools are probably academically selective in some way too, though, so I wouldn't think we can attribute the results to just the teaching there. And even if they don't, kids of wealthy parents have an academic advantage throughout their education because of factors tied to their parents' wealth (aside from being able to afford private education).

I'd imagine, though, at least some of the vast amounts of cash these schools have must go towards attractive wages for good teachers and more of them (smaller class sizes), and both of those things make a difference.

[–] notgold@aussie.zone 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

so there are government selective schools that get higher funding than regular public schools. That seems fair /s

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 1 points 8 months ago

I actually have no idea if government selective schools get more funding.