Families with children attending Catholic and independent schools are calling for the state government's $400 School Saving Bonus to be extended.
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The one-off $400 School Saving Bonus, to be made available from term one 2025, will help to cover the cost of uniforms, camps, excursions and other extracurricular activities through the school year for students at government schools.
Only students with a health care card will be eligible for the payment if they attend Catholic or independent schools.
"Our Catholic school families are feeling cost-of-living pressures too, yet only those who are healthcare card holders (around 13 per cent) are eligible for the program," said Catholic Education Ballarat chief executive Tom Sexton.
"Like government schools, the vast majority of our Catholic school families are in the low and middle-income brackets. They are taxpayers too yet have been excluded from this program."
Mr Sexton called for the payment to apply to all students, or be means-tested for all students.
"It should not be based on which school you attend," he said.
"We want to work with government to ensure students across all sectors receive the support they need to get the best education possible, but this policy is blatantly unfair."
Independent Schools Victoria acting chief executive Meg Hansen said the budget measure discriminated against independent school parents.
"The discriminatory restriction attached to the bonus is based on the false assumption that all parents in independent schools are immune from cost-of-living pressures," Ms Hansen said.
"Equally it assumes that all parents with children in government schools face those same pressures."
She said it was yet another measure imposed on independent schools, following the payroll tax impost in last year's state budget.
"Like last year's, the 2024 budget assumes families who choose to educate their children in independent schools aren't under financial strain, and that it is fair to discriminate against them," she said.
"This year's budget will be extremely disappointing to the growing number of parents, many of them on low to middle incomes, who chose an independent school that matches the needs of their children."
