THE Australian Education Union are calling on the ACT government and the Commonwealth Government to strip funding from Canberra Grammar School after it received a $20 million donation from Canberra Airport owner Terry Snow. 

Following the donation, which made the donation to the school as part of its 90th anniversary year, the AEU ACT Branch Council, representing more than 3700 public educators, unanimously carried a motion asking the ACT and Commonwealth Government to “recall the millions of dollars per year in recurrent and capital funding that the school receives from tax payers and rate payers”.

“Noting that the school reportedly also receives more than $34 million per year in fees paid by parents, council contends that there is no purpose for or entitlement to such largesse from government,” the motion reads.

“Council requests that any planned future government funding earmarked for Canberra Grammar School be immediately repurposed to directly support the education (preferably the music education) of the ACT’s disadvantaged students, the overwhelming majority of whom are in public schools. 

“Council remains outraged that Australia’s school education system is one of the most socially segregated in the world and that the funding of Australian schools is becoming increasingly inequitable. It is a national scandal, and this most recent Snow gift is a perfect vignette of the intolerable inequity that exists.

“Nobody can or should control how Terry Snow donates his money, but governments have a responsibility to provide financial subsidies and support to Australians who need it, an example of which is our aged pension system, and to not waste precious tax expenditure on those who do not need it.”

The donation by Mr Snow follows the $8 million gift of the Snow Centre for Education in the Asian Century to Canberra Grammar School in 2014-2015.

Terry Snow tips another $20 million into his old school