The Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) uses a formula to decide how much government money each school requires. The federal government pays 80 per cent of private schools' SRS benchmark, and NSW pays the rest. The proportions are reversed for state schools, for which NSW is the majority funder. Loading The SRS took effect this year, but over-payments to private schools are yet to be wound back. NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes says the state government intends to bring the funding back to SRS benchmark levels, arguing all schools should share a common funding formula. Mr Rorris was commissioned by the NSW Teachers Federation to calculate the overfunding of non-government schools in 2018 in relation to the SRS.

His report found payments to 187 of 270 independent schools in NSW exceeded the state's SRS share. In total, the sector received at least $75 million more than it needed from the NSW government this year. That figure is likely higher as Mr Rorris, an expert in education finance and former consultant to the Schools Resourcing Taskforce, did not include the 130 schools for which there was not enough data available. Oakhill College received $7.4 million more in federal and state money this year than it should under the SRS, and $2.8 million of that is from the state government. Loreto Kirribilli was given $5.86 million more, $2 million of that from NSW. St Aloysius received $5.4 million above its SRS, including $2.1 million from the state, Mr Rorris found. The state's Catholic system received $85 million more than would have been needed to meet the state's share. In 2018, NSW paid Catholic schools 23 per cent of the SRS (an extra 3 per cent), but the bill is high because there are hundreds of Catholic schools.

However, the federal government pays Catholic schools less than its share of the SRS, so when both are combined the sector is over-funded by 1 per cent of its SRS benchmark, or $35 million, the report said. Loading "While the NSW government system sits more than 10 per cent below its target SRS funding levels, the non-government schools have already exceeded their SRS funding targets from public funding alone," Mr Rorris' report found. "The $160 million overspend by the NSW government on non-government schools would make a very significant contribution towards meeting the resourcing gap of public schools."

Teachers Federation boss Maurie Mulheron said the federal government last month gave private schools an extra $4.6 million while state schools remained under-funded. "On any reckoning, it's unfair," said Mr Mulheron. "It's not based on any kind of notion of fairness, that the majority of children that attend public schools have a funding system that does not meet their needs. It's a moral question that Australians have to face." Loading Payments above the SRS will be wound back by both governments, but NSW's timeline for that is being negotiated by Mr Stokes and his federal counterpart, Dan Tehan. The federal government has said it would meet its share of the SRS for under-funded schools by 2023, but give over-funded schools until 2029 before the money is cut off.

Mr Stokes said NSWs vision was "to move every school closer to the SRS in accordance with the agreement," he said. "We will of course try to work with sectors to make the transition as painless as possible, but recognise this is all about putting every school and every child on a common funding formula." Peter Goss, School Education Program Director for the Grattan Institute, said there had been such a focus on Commonwealth special deals that many have missed the fact that it's happening at state level, too. The amounts have more difficult to calculate because of the way the details are included in the budget. "We should applaud any state minister who is willing to acknowledge this and take the hard political decisions to do the right thing for policy and students, which is consistent, needs-based funding regardless of school sector," Dr Goss said. Catholic chiefs are nervous NSW will wind its funding back to 20 per cent before the Commonwealth increases its share, leaving its schools with a significant funding gap.

The chief executive of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said the bilateral agreement did not force NSW to bring its funding down to an "artificially determined" funding benchmark. "If the NSW government were to reduce funding to an artificial level of 20 per cent, more than 80 per cent of independent schools would be severely impacted," he said. "School fees would rise and in many cases the choice of schooling for parents would be eliminated. Parents wanting to send their children to Catholic and independent schools would be forced to enrol their children in an already overcrowded government school sector." Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Over payments are the result of funding policy changes across two decades, which came with promises that schools would not lose money. They have been inherited by the Berejiklian and Morrison governments.

The Schooling Resource Standard was designed to apply a transparent formula to funding. Each student, public or private, begins with the same amount of base funding. Extra money is added for disadvantaged students and schools. Once that figure is calculated, private schools' funding is reduced according to parents' capacity to contribute. The federal government pays 80 per cent of the final figure for private schools, and the states pay 20 per cent. That's reversed for public schools. Loading Mr Tehan, who has told states they must sign by December 7 or risk having their private school funding pulled, said he wanted a deal reached as soon as possible so funding could flow to all schools. “These negotiations have been conducted in good faith with all states and territories and I want to ensure that continues."