Timothy Norris and his 15-year-old son Nicholas, who moved from an independent school to Albert Park College. Credit:Daniel Pockett "The figures challenge the myth that independent schools are the sole preserve of the wealthy," said Independent Schools Victoria chief executive Michelle Green. "In fact more than half of the students at independent schools are from low and middle income families." The pattern is replicated across the country and is set to heap pressure on already-stretched state public school systems that have been forced to install demountable classrooms by the hundreds in order to meet demand. Former KPMG partner Timothy Norris sent his son to independent schools in the United States, Brazil and Australia before moving him into the state school system in Year 8 at Albert Park College. "My son has blossomed," he said. "He has taken on three different instruments and mastered them."

Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The change has saved the family $25,000 a year, although Mr Norris said this was not a factor in the move. "It's a pleasant benefit," he said. The data, taken from the 2016 Census, comes as the school funding debate pushes its way back into Parliament this week. In a new set of responses to questions on notice from Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the Department of Education has advised that more than 120 NSW Catholic schools and 123 Victorian Catholic schools are currently over-funded, while 241 independent schools are over funded nationwide. More than 600 NSW public schools and 195 Victorian public schools have also exceeded their resourcing standard, according to the document.

Tensions between the sectors are now spilling over into accusations of misleading research and name-calling, as Education Minister Simon Birmingham's National School Resourcing Board meets in Canberra on Thursday to begin talks on how the socio-economic status of each school will be calculated in future. Lobbying of government backbenchers has been ramping up in the past week with principals in the Catholic sector calling Coalition MPs to heap pressure on them to change the government's line on its Gonski 2.0 reforms - which they say will cost their schools millions of dollars a year and could force up to 50 to close. But new MySchool modelling by the Independent Schools Council of Australia shows that Catholic schools in the median socio-economic range [101-115] are receiving up to $2000 more per student per year in NSW and Victoria compared to independent schools, while those that have been given a high socio-economic [121+] rating are receiving almost double the level of government funding.

The Catholic sector now says the entire socio economic calculation system is broken and based on flawed Australian Bureau of Statistics data, which places greater focus on the status of the suburb the school is located in than the circumstances of individual families. The Catholic system pools funding for its schools and then distributes it based on its own methodology and has fiercely defended its right to do so amid efforts to bring it into line with the public and independent systems, where funding is distributed by the government on a school-by-school basis. "The Coalition has eroded the ability of the Catholic church, and other denominations who also aim to run quality, accessible, inclusive schools to by putting an end to the tool that facilitates funding being spread across all schools to meet their special needs," a spokesman said. Education Minister Simon Birmingham fired back on Sunday. "Our plan ends the situation where if you changed the sign on a gate from being a Catholic school to another type of non-government school the amount of money the government would deliver would drop," he said.