Parents set to pay $200k for a regional private school education

These expenses accumulate by tuition and other fees, tutors, electronic devices, school excursions, textbooks and extra-curricular activities to cost NSW state school parents more than $87,000 over 13 years.

Government schooling is the still the most cost-effective option.

A Catholic education in regional NSW was estimated to cost $167,695 and regional private schooling could top $231,118 over 13 years, a schooling report from Futurity Investment Group found.

Australian Curriculum Authority data and assumptions about future consumer price index were used to reach the report's findings.

Expense estimates are based on 13 years of schooling for a student enrolled from 2024.

"When you look forward 13 years, which is what these figures do, that number can be quite alarming for families. And that's for a single child," Futurity Investment CEO Sam Sondhi said.

"It's really clear from the survey responses that the majority of families are experiencing cost pressure stress," he said.

Mr Sondhi said education costs were "high on the list of causes" with mortgage and rent stress.

Education price estimates had skyrocketed over 12 months with regional NSW government education costs projected to be almost $5,000 more expensive over a child's schooling life compared to 2023 estimates.

Mr Sondhi said costs had "escalated across the board in recent years with inflation being as high as it has been".

Education was seen as an important way to unlock future opportunities for children leading parents to prioritise schooling costs in the household budget, survey responses found.

Mr Sondhi said "one of the key insights from the research is that families are spending a lot on outside tuition, irrespective of the form of education".

However students at Catholic schools were more likely than government or independent students to have a tutor, the research found.

Private tutors were forecast to cost parents of regional government students $1,078 while independent school parents would fork out $1,873 and Catholic school parents would pay around $2,623 over 13 years.

Despite higher costs Australian Bureau of Statistics data from the decade to 2024 showed enrolments in independent schools were increasing at twice the rate of Catholic or government school until 2022.

The most expensive independent schools in NSW in 2023, including Kambala School, SCEGGS Darlinghurst and The Scots College, charged between $42,000 and $46,000 per year in tuition fees.

Victorian independent students were charged similar fees while Queensland independent schools charged up to $32,000.

School fees represented only four per cent of education expenses while 96 per cent was from "everything else".

The research found that the largest financial outlays came through transport costs as well as buying electronic devices and musical instruments.

"We look at, not just tuition costs, but everything that a parent will typically incur in providing an education and often these items are mandated by schools," Mr Sondhi said.

"There's a degree of optionality to it but it represents what a family would typically spend on a child educating them."