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Soaring back-to-school costs are putting even more pressure on Australian household budgets, but parents are still valuing a good education, new research shows.
Aussies living in a capital city will for the first time spend at least $100,000 per child on 13 years of education, as the cost of schooling skyrockets in 2025.
Futurity Investment Group executive general manager Sarah McAdie said there was a 33 per cent increase in costs to send a child to a government school, while independent schools would cost 10 per cent more.
Surprisingly, there was a one per cent decrease in the Catholic sector.
“What is driving the costs – especially in the government sector – is the ancillary items which families are buying including uniforms, textbooks, stationery, camps, transport and outside tuition devices or electives,” she said.
The fresh figures show Brisbane is Australia’s most affordable city for a government education, but will still cost parents $101,064 if their kid starts their schooling in 2025.
Meanwhile, Sydney is Australia’s most expensive city for a government education at $150,323 over 13-years for a child starting school this year.
Regionally families in Queensland will still spend $72,670 on schooling, despite being the cheapest option in the country.
Even with the rising costs, households in a government school are still picking up just eight per cent of the total education bill.
Parents who send a child to a Catholic or independent school are tipped to pay even more.
The national average for a Catholic education is $153,144 including regional and remote areas, while the national average for independent schools is $244,075 when accounting for regional and remote schools.
Ms McAdie said despite soaring costs, parents were still valuing an education for their children.
“When we spoke to parents, 50 per cent said it was their responsibility to pay for the child’s education for life, while nine in 10 say a good education is important for the child’s future success and happiness,” Ms McAdie said.
To pay for all of this, families are increasingly cutting back where they can due to these soaring education prices.
“Parents are making sacrifices to keep up with these costs, including 24 per cent of households not going on holidays, almost 30 per cent going without for themselves, while 22 per cent are working more than they would like to be,” Ms McAdie said.
The research also shows 27 per cent of parents are relying on credit cards to pay for the kids’ schooling, while 11 per cent need a bit of help from the grandparents.
With the high cost of sending kids to school, Ms McAdie said families were looking to plan early.
“The households that save and plan in advance will have more options for the children,” Ms McAdie said.
“What we found really interesting is families have increased their awareness of what it will cost to send their kids to school, while 64 per cent of parents are telling us they are very intentionally preparing for the cost of education.”