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Grammar hall ‘monument to extravagance’

Graham Matthews, Sydney

7 February 2009

Greens NSW MLC John Kaye has highlighted the massive inequity in school funding, citing the submission by Sydney Grammar School — one of Australia’s wealthiest schools — of plans to build a new $23.5 million assembly hall.

“A new, state-of-the-art public high school at Rouse Hill will cost $22.1 million”, Kaye said on February 5. “Sydney Grammar can afford to put aside more for one assembly hall than the Rees [NSW state] government spends on its halls and gymnasiums program for all public schools over a four year period.”

Kaye pointed out that Sydney Grammar receives a total of $3.3 million a year from government coffers, including $1.1 million from the (apparently cash-strapped) NSW government.

“It is time for the NSW government to stop squandering public money on schools that can pay for such opulence. Those funds should be going to public education to make sure every school has an assembly hall”, Kaye said.

“At a time when working families are feeling the pinch of a looming recession, Sydney Grammar lashes out on a monument to extravagance. The school has shown a disgraceful disregard for the stress felt by families who are facing an uphill struggle. They should cancel the project and give up any future funding from the state or commonwealth governments.”