South Australian parents are paying the 2nd highest out-of-pocket fees for public schools in Australia – but today the Greens have announced a national plan to make public education actually free by abolishing public school fees and delivering an $800 back-to-school payment for each public school student as the school year returns.

The Greens will push to give the schools’ cost-of-living relief package to South Australian parents in the likely event of a minority Government post-election.

Key Points:

• SA public school fees are 2nd highest in Australia, $548 per student in 2022  second only to Victoria – or $94.4m per year across the state
• Greens would abolish public fees & deliver $800 back-to-school payments for each public school student 
• A family with two kids would be around $2,500 better off every year under the Greens plan
• Policy costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office & funded by the Greens suite of tax reforms to make big corporations pay their fair share 

Greens Senator for South Australia Sarah Hanson-Young said, “Public education should be free, but SA parents are getting slugged with some of the highest school fees and costs in Australia, second only to Victoria. In a cost of living crisis this is one cost the Government can help families with. The Greens will deliver relief to parents by abolishing school fees and delivering an $800 back-to-school payment for each student.”

“A family with two kids in a public school would be over $2,500 better off every year under the Greens plan.”

“Beyond abolishing fees, the $800 ‘back to school’ payment to parents will help with all the additional costs at the beginning of the school year.”

“Governments are underfunding our public schools and shifting the costs onto parents. The pressure of back to school bills is extreme at this time of year and our plan will help cover costs like a new uniform, a new set of books, school shoes and those other expenses so that kids can participate fully in their education.”

“This investment in our kids’ education has been costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office and will be funded by making big corporations like Santos, Qantas and Netflix pay their fair share of tax under our fully costed suite of tax reforms.”

In order to abolish public school fees and charges and help reverse the cost-shifting to parents that has occurred under Labor and Liberal governments, additional funding of $2.4 billion over the forward estimates will be given to public schools. This is on top of the 100% Schooling Resource Standard funding commitment previously announced.