Fairfax Media recently published an article comparing the “per student” funding of children enrolled at private, Catholic and public schools in 2016.

The report used Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) data that tallied state government, federal government and school fees for each student. It found that students at private schools were receiving, on average, around $6700 a year more funding than students at public schools.

Drilling down, though, the figures show that the whole of that discrepancy – and then some – can be attributed to the fees paid by private school parents. Total government funding for public school students (federal and state) averaged around $12,800 while each private school student received around $9050 – a difference of $3750.

Clearly, any government bureaucrat trying to balance the education budget knows it is in their interest to get more students into private schooling rather than fewer.

The second article reported the concerns of Parramatta Catholic diocese education director Greg Whitby over the operation of selective schools in the public system.

Mr Whitby claimed that luring many of the state’s most talented students to just a few selective schools risked creating “second and third rate” schools elsewhere.

The idea of selective schools to help talented students from battling families be their best cannot be faulted. But the numbers show that is not what is happening.

ACARA data from 2017 show that the student body at the state’s top-performing school – James Ruse Agricultural High at Carlingford, a public selective school – boasted an Index of Community Socio- Educational Advantage (ICSEA) of 1236, among the most advantaged in the state.

By comparison, the ICSEA at the prestigious King’s School was 1166; at Abbotsleigh it was 1226; St Ignatius’ was 1176. Sydney Grammar (1286) was one of the few to match James Ruse.

What is happening at James Ruse is that privileged families are taking places from the battling kids the system was designed to support, but denying those privileged families access to the school could not work either. The debate goes on, with no resolution in sight.