Doesn’t this article show that the funding received by private schools is actually more in most cases?

No it doesn’t show that - go back and read it again.

The article says that funding is supposed to be an 80/20 split between the two levels of government, with the federal budget covering the lions share of private school funding and state governments covering the lions share of public school funding. It also shows the state governments are mostly failing to provide the level of funding they are supposed to provide, while the federal government is providing exactly the right amount or a little too much.

It shows percentages, not dollar amounts. The dollar amount is different for every school in both private and public systems and the method to calculate how much funding each school is entitled to is complex — for a lot of the funding they are working with estimates, for example if students don’t turn up the school gets less funding (and for some schools, less than half the enrolled kids actually attend). It’s impossible to know when the budget is set ahead of time what the attendance will be - they guess and they get it wrong all the time.

It’s also worth noting that there are actually five sources of funding for schools and this article only covers two of them. Schools receive substantial funding from parents (even public schools usually expect parents to pay thousands of dollars per year on laptops/etc), they receive funding from teachers (83% of teachers in Australia claim they spend some of their own salary on resources - estimated to be close to $200m per year nationwide), and they receive funding from various fundraising efforts the schools undertake throughout the year - from donation drives to renting out school assets/land (e.g. sports facilities and ovals are often rented out on weekends).

Generally, public schools receive more government funding (and probably more teacher funding*) and private schools receive more from other sources. But that’s a generalisation and it varies significantly from school to school and year to year.

I think teacher funding is the hero of the five sources of funding - it’s the smallest part of the budget but also the most effective one. Teachers know what they need and they find good deals. For example a parent might spend $100 on a single text book for one student. A teacher might get that book for free (donated by a parent?) or very cheap (op shop?) and then illegally pay for a dozen photocopies at officeworks.

Sure, the quality of education isn’t entirely based on funding. But to sit here and claim funding doesn’t help is a little privileged.

I never said funding doesn’t help. I just said funding is not the main indicator of student outcomes.

In fact more funding generally means the government has flagged the school as failing to provide an appropriate level of education… and while the extra funding surely helps it’s also a simple fact that kids at that school aren’t getting what they are entitled to.

If you are deciding which school to send your kid to… then funding shouldn’t be the main thing you consider.