WA\u2019s most expensive private schools are hitting parents with fee increases of up to 7 per cent next year \u2014 nearly double the national inflation rate.<\/p>\n
The price tag to educate a Year 12 student will surge past an eye-watering $35,000 at a handful of prestigious colleges.<\/p>\n
Fees at Methodist Ladies\u2019 College will rise to $38,037, but the Claremont school told parents this now included levies that had previously been charged separately, equating to an overall 6.5 per cent increase.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year, there is a single quoted tuition fee for your daughter\u2019s education,\u201d MLC said in a letter parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 2026 fee increase aligns with the college\u2019s ongoing operational requirements and has been determined from rigorous fiscal management.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not all schools have updated their fee schedules on their websites, but of those that have, Como girls\u2019 school Penrhos College had the biggest increase of 7.4 per cent, lifting the cost of Year 12 tuition from $29,895 to $32,137.<\/p>\n
Costs will rise by 7.2 per cent \u2014 or more than $2500 \u2014 at Claremont\u2019s boys-only Christ Church Grammar School to $37,173.<\/p>\n
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, while headline inflation was 3.8 per cent in the 12 months to October, education inflation rose 5.4 per cent.<\/p>\n
Parents of Year 12 students at Swanbourne boys\u2019 school Scotch College will pay $35,932, an increase of 5.5 per cent.<\/p>\n
The school\u2019s chair of council, Tim Wiese, said in a letter to parents it had sought to limit fee increases \u201cas much as possible\u201d, despite increasing cost pressures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the current environment, the college is continuing to experience elevated costs including from higher teacher numbers, salaries and superannuation costs, as well as compliance and technology costs,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe college is finding that maintenance and small capital works have become more expensive in recent times in attending to important classroom and facilities refurbishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cSignificantly, while Scotch receives modest Government funding, that funding increases at a rate that is below inflation, adding cost pressures for the college.\u201d<\/p>\n
Co-ed Bull Creek school All Saints\u2019 College will break through the $30,000 price barrier for the first time, hiking fees 5.9 per cent to $30,604.<\/p>\n
Wembley Downs boys\u2019 college Hale School will charge $34,470 a year, an increase of 5.9 per cent, while co-ed Guildford Grammar School will boost fees 6.9 per cent to $29,275.<\/p>\n
Despite the hefty increases, Perth schools are still cheaper than their equivalents in Sydney or Melbourne, where some parents are paying more than $50,000 a year for private education.<\/p>\n
Catholic schools which charge much lower fees, hovering at around $6000 a year for Year 12 tuition, will increase their prices by up to 5 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext year, 111 Catholic Education WA Ltd schools have recommended fee increases of 5 per cent or less, with at least 56 schools having recommended fee increases below the rate of inflation,\u201d a CEWA spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to supporting families from a range of socio-economic backgrounds and no family should be denied the opportunity of a Catholic education due to financial difficulty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WA\u2019s most expensive private schools are hitting parents with fee increases of up to 7 per cent next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,2555,44],"class_list":["post-363284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-education","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}