据《悉尼先驱晨报》报道，最近一项房价数据显示，要想把孩子送进新州顶尖的公立学校读书，父母首先得准备好至少150万元买房。

费法斯传媒分析了2016年Domain的学区报告数据并结合今年的新州高考（HSC）成绩，结果发现悉尼20所顶尖公立学校的学区房价平均飙升7%，其中麦凯乐（Mackella）、史卓菲（Strathfield）和威乐比区（Willoughby）的房价达到200万元。切尔滕纳姆女校（Cheltenham Girls）附近的中位房价上涨了15.5%，达170万元。

经济学家科博尔德（Trevor Cobbold）现经营一家公校教育支持组织Save Our Schools，他称高房价巩固了富裕家庭获得良好教育的优势。

“这些学校是否真的能比其他学校带来更多的教育价值，或者这些好成绩只是因为大多学生来自于富裕家庭？或许这些家长花200万让孩子进入这些学校的唯一好处就是让孩子接触有钱人家的孩子，而不会带来更好的成绩。他们的孩子去其他学校可能也会表现很好。”科博尔德说道。

圣玛丽斯高中（St Marys Senior High School）的HSC成绩击败很多位于图拉慕拉（Turramurra）、库鲁努拉（Cronulla）和基拉尼高地（Killarney Heights）的同类学校，但在2016年属于该校的学区只卖出12套房，中位房价排名20所顶尖公立学校学区最后，达41万元。

房产中介迪安（Geoff Dean）表示，在过去十年或更长的时间里，可莱雅地区（Killara）涌现了很多关注教育的华人家庭，他们买房正是看中附近名校，这推高了房价。

“搬到这边来的父母通常都重视教育，他们严格监督孩子努力学习，并送孩子上其它培训课，这也是为什么这些学校孩子成绩很优秀的原因。”

$1.5 million to send your child to

one of the state’s top public schools

Parents will have to fork out up to $1.5 million to send their kids to one of the state’s top public schools, new house price data has revealed.

A Fairfax Media analysis of 2016 Domain school zones report datacombined with this year’s HSC results, shows the median house price in the catchment zone in some of Sydney’s top 20 performing public schools has climbed by up to 7 per cent, hitting up to $2 million in Mackellar, Strathfield and Willoughby.

At Sydney’s top performing non-selective public school this year, Cheltenham Girls, the median house price surged by 15.5 per cent to $1.7 million.

The school rose from 73rd to 53rd in the state overall last year, according to the HSC data, which only takes into account the total proportion of students who scored a band 6 in subjects.

The analysis shows that catchment zones such as Newtown, Castle Hill and Burwood Girls have some of the lowest median house prices of the top 20, peaking at $1.37 million for Castle Hill.

Former Productivity Commission economist Trevor Cobbold, who now runs public education advocacy group Save Our Schools, said high house prices entrenched the advantage of wealthy families accessing education.

“It is an open question as to whether these schools are adding more value to education than lower socio-economic status comprehensive schools elsewhere or whether their higher results simply reflect their greater concentration of students from wealthier families,” he said.

“It is possible that spending up to $2 million to get into these schools just buys a well-off peer group rather than better results. Their children are likely to do just as well in other schools because of the advantages conveyed by the higher income and wealth of their parents.”

St Marys Senior High School, which beat the HSC results of many of its higher priced peers in Turramurra, Cronulla and Killarney Heights, has a small catchment zone that recorded only 12 sales in 2016, but had the lowest median price of all the top 20 Sydney schools at $410,000.

Domain, which is owned by the Herald’s publisher Fairfax Media, also included median rents in their data for parents who are unable or unwilling to buy into the property market in the top performing areas.

Cheltenham, Cherrybrook and Killara offered some of the cheapest median rents of between $700 and $850 a week for a house in the catchment zone of the highest performing schools.

Geoff Dean from Belle Property Killara said there had been an influx of education-focused Chinese-Australian families in the area in the past decade or more.

“Chinese families really buy for the Killara High catchment zone. It certainly adds to purchase prices,” he said.

Mr Dean said there was a sort of virtuous circle for the schools in the area.

“It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the people who move into the area to send their kids to school are the ones who are interested and feel education is really important. They’re the kids getting pushed hard by the parents, they’re the ones getting the extra coaching, and that’s why the schools are getting the good results.”

Killara resident James Kwok moved his family to the area six years ago so his two children, now in Year 11 and 12, could attend the school.

“It seemed to have a pretty good reputation,” he said. “I’m generally quite happy with the school. The kids seem to be doing quite well.”

He said he knew of at least one other family that had moved into the area based on the school.

“Yes, it is happening more and more,” he said. “That’s what I keep being told by the real estate agents anyway, they keep knocking on my door and asking if I want to sell.”

Other buyers are looking at the long term, snapping up opportunities to secure spots in primary schools, while also keeping an eye on future high school opportunities. Catchment zones in Neutral Bay, Vaucluse and St Peters all saw house price rises of more than 26 per cent in the past year.

Chris Quevedo and his wife Lucy bought in Petersham for $1,365,000 because it was close to a combination of good public, private and Catholic schools for their four-year-old son Joshua.

“The ranking of the schools in the area is high and where we bought is on the border of several schools, so we’d be able to get him in if we tried,” Mr Quevedo told Domain.