Private School Principal flies J with wife to UK for Henley

[andye]

Story in the Herald

King’s School defends regatta trip, says business class trips with spouses are standard

The King’s School has defended a controversial trip by its headmaster and his wife to the Royal Henley Regatta, west of London, after the First VIII qualified for the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup.

www.smh.com.au

Seems to have caused a bit of a stink.

I would have thought he'd be considered a high-ranking professional and entitled to J for a work trip (outside the usual brickbats for anyone to fly business).

Wife's airfare might be more contentious but in my opinion would be representing school too

Obviously other issues have been brought in such as public funding for private schools

 

[Forg]

Yeah he works for a lucrative private company … who but the shareholders get to say he’s not allowed to travel in non-pain?

 

[luxury-lizard]

My issue on reading the story was "what First Class" ??? Really ?? But as we know the outcry led to a downgrade to J. Not sure about the wives - presumably will be subject to fringe benefits tax. So it's over to the board to decide and of course families of students to lead any further outcry.

 

[andye]

Kind of surprised that there are that many families or board members at an 'elite' private school that would expect him to fly economy. Would understand there'd be complaints if it were the head of a public school (though does show a lack of respect for the teaching profession). As an aside, the professional group I've met most often on QF Int J are union leaders.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Obviously other issues have been brought in such as public funding for private schools

Its an elite private school, so as long as its their funds they're using, who cares. But of course, the devil will always be in the detail - did this school receive an equivalent amount of public funding as all other schools? I'm not overly knowledgeable in this area, but public funds should only cover the minimum on a per child basis for private schooling. Public schooling needs more funding.

 

[muppet]

The first class attempt is over the top, and I can’t see how the spouse travelling is defensible using school funds, however if the school community feels his attendance is necessary then business class is appropriate.

Schools are not private entities like a small business, they are heavily taxpayer funded, given significant tax breaks (income tax, payroll and council rates) and enjoy exemptions to a wide raft of regulations - in that context - their expenditure should meet community standards. If they wanna fly around first class, go for it - but let’s treat them like any other actual private entity that has to pay its own way.

 

[Forg]

The politics around private school funding are a little tricky ... because the funding, the tax breaks etc are "sort of" higher per-student than public schools.

The reason for that is the fact that the government doesn't need to build classrooms, pay teachers, etc etc all the stuff that isn't included in the "funding" when it's looked at in a simple way. And hence it would actually cost the government more per-student if all those private students had to attend public school, than is being handed to private schools ... but when you look at a simple version of those funding costs it DOES sort-of look like private school students get more funding than public school students ... hence the whole politics issue.

 

[oz_mark]

Quite likely that this is in accordance with policy. If there is an issue, the governing body should take a look at the policies and contracts i has in place.

 

[NoName]

Would have thought F would be excessive for any organisation. J - no problem. This should be really simple:

Is the trip necessary/worthwhile?

If yes: then J
If no: don’t pay for them at all

Not sure paying for the spouse is necessary. Do other businesses pay for the partner to go on work trips as well? Wouldn’t have thought so.

 

[odysseus]

Not sure what this statement from the school's chair is meant to mean "The cost of the tickets purchased was less than the cost to travel in the approved class for such business travel." Is this implying first class travel is "approved" but because of blowback they only booked business?

 

[Ausbt]

who but the shareholders get to say he’s not allowed to travel in non-pain?

Well me, as a taxpayer, if you don't mind too much. When private schools are 100% privately funded, they can gad about on their little jollies with their leather patches and likely weird fetishes all they want.

 

[NM]

Would have thought F would be excessive for any organisation. J - no problem. This should be really simple:

Is the trip necessary/worthwhile?

If yes: then J
If no: don’t pay for them at all

Not sure paying for the spouse is necessary. Do other businesses pay for the partner to go on work trips as well? Wouldn’t have thought so.

The only time my employer has paid for Mrs NM to join me on a work-funded trip was a "prize" or "award" to attend a global company event (possibly best identified as a "junket") as recognition of exceptional work achievement. And yes, there was fringe benefits to be paid and it affected my personal tax at the end of the FY due to reportable fringe benefits being added to taxable income for the purpose of calculating Medicare levy etc.

We very much appreciated the employer-funded trip and the event. Class of travel that was funded by the company was based strictly on the normal company travel policy, so travel from Australia to the USA was in business class. Domestic connections either end in economy. Other staff attending from USA and some parts of Europe were all economy. I think the threshold for business class was international flights greater than 8 hours duration. That event was rumoured to have cost the company around US$1M each year, and considered great value by management as it recognised the highest achievers that contributed to revenues and profits.

So I agree with other's sentiments that if its deemed there is a business purpose that the Principal needs to travel to the UK, then business class is appropriate. However, there would need to be exceptional circumstances to justify spouse traveling too.

 

[Forg]

Well me, as a taxpayer, if you don't mind too much. When private schools are 100% privately funded, they can gad about on their little jollies with their leather patches and likely weird fetishes all they want.

Same would therefore be true of ... say, clergy? And the bloke next door, if he gets a tax deduction?

 

[JohnK]

What's the justification for travelling business? Arrive refreshed? Travel a day earlier and have a sleep in hotel for an extra night. But then I'd say that the hotels booked are 5 star or above.?

I worked on projects in SE Asia where the expectation was that we hit the ground running on Monday morning arriving late the night before. I pushed for travelling the day before and accommodation included. They would only pay for economy class travel.

 

[SeatBackForward]

The politics around private school funding are a little tricky ... because the funding, the tax breaks etc are "sort of" higher per-student than public schools.

The reason for that is the fact that the government doesn't need to build classrooms, pay teachers, etc etc all the stuff that isn't included in the "funding" when it's looked at in a simple way. And hence it would actually cost the government more per-student if all those private students had to attend public school, than is being handed to private schools ... but when you look at a simple version of those funding costs it DOES sort-of look like private school students get more funding than public school students ... hence the whole politics issue.

Well me, as a taxpayer, if you don't mind too much. When private schools are 100% privately funded, they can gad about on their little jollies with their leather patches and likely weird fetishes all they want.

I think its reasonable that the Govt fund each child a fixed amount and gives that to the Private schools. And then gives more to the public schools to pay for facilities teaching etc. I don't hear of many private schools with inadequate facilities, in fact the opposite (eg. the school diving team want their own practice pool. ) so either they're getting enough, or perhaps even too much for that aspect., certainly don't need any more.

 

[Forg]

What's the justification for travelling business? Arrive refreshed? Travel a day earlier and have a sleep in hotel for an extra night. But then I'd say that the hotels booked are 5 star or above.?

Thinking about my own circumstance ... I think I'd be miffed if someone wanted me to go somewhere for work, and I was subjected to the knee pain & backside pain & sleep deprivation & general discomfort of Economy.

 

[Quickstatus]

The funding for schools is based on the School Resourse Standard SR (see Gonski report) - this covers recurrent school costs - salaries, building maintenance, insurance, electricity etc.

Basically the base resource standard is :$12462 in primary school and $15660 in secondary school for all schools


Now the base resourcing for private schools are also adjusted based on "capacity to contribute" (CTC)- using personal tax income of parents. The names and addresses are matched to Commonweaklth govt rdatabases such as ATO.

So Public schools get all of base resourcing, and private schools base resources is modified by the CTC

Then there are loadings which are based on school location, socioeconomic advantage/disadvantage, students with disability, English as second language, A&TSI, school size

On average govt funding of public schools is about $20K per student and private schools $11-13KL per student depending on type of private schools.

Of the SRS+loading
The commonwealth funds 80% of private school 20% public school
The State govt funds 80% of public schools and 20% of Private schools

As an example one "expensive" private school near me gets 3% of its total income as recurrent funding from State govt and 7% from commonwealth govt as recurrent funding.

When private schools are 100% privately funded

So government funding for that school is 10%
Due to the CTS some private schools likely to lose govt funding.


Voluntary building fund can be tax deductible - to both public and private schools.

high-ranking professional

School principal basically is the CEO - and answers to the School Board.

 

[TomYagher]

So Public schools get all of base resourcing, and private schools base resources is modified by the CTC

While public schools may get all their base resourcing from government, they are defineitly not meeting the SRS from the gonski report.

The NSW private schools over-funded by $120 million

amp.smh.com.au

“Independent schools paid less than 100 per cent of their SRS entitlement are to have their funding brought up to the standard by 2023, but over-funded schools will not lose their extra money until 2029. There is no plan to bring public schools to 100 per cent of the SRS”

“Effectively in NSW, one in eight students – or 100,000 students – is receiving no funding.”

And then there is also major government infrastructure spending for private schools locked away in certain funds, while many public schools lack adequate teaching and learning spaces.