A young entrepreneur has hit back at haters who teased him during his high school years for going to a private school.
In a recent video posted to social media Max McKay said he ‘never understood how being called a private school kid is an insult’.
‘Really never understood that one, like you’re mad at me for my parents spending money on my education?’
‘Is it a money thing? Mr McKay asked.
‘Because whenever I would get on the bus and I was wearing my tie and blazer a little public school f***er would go ”nice blazer d***head” and I’m like ”nice one bro, hope you got lunch money” you know what I mean?’
He clarified that, despite being labeled with derogatory terms like ‘rich kid’ by fellow teens, his family was not well off, even though he attended a private school.
‘Brother, my family is in the same situation as yours… I don’t even know why I’m going to this school right now.’
He said that he attended a private school because he had got ‘kicked out of public school’.
‘The one you went to? Kicked out. A lot of people that go to private school are dropkick kids because their family is worried their kid is going to be a failure so they send them to a private school.’
Mr McKay now runs a successful social media page as well as working in sales and coaches others how to grow their wealth online.
Comments on the video were mixed with many saying they agreed that they didn’t know what was so negative about going to a private school.
‘Bro I go to a private school and I am NOT rich,’ one said.
‘People don’t understand that private school kids can be in the exact same situation as a public school kid’ another said.
‘My parents put in every cent they had for me to have a good education,’ a third said.
While another was proud of the private school status saying they were ‘too smart for public school’.
Max McKay said he ‘never understood’ why people disliked those who went to private schools
But others insisted private school students were ‘arrogant’
‘I think it’s because some parents don’t humble their kids so they act entitled and cant empathise well with people who don’t live comfy lifestyles,’ one said.
‘Ohhh so I’m a drop kick, we get about the same education but he’s obviously so smart,’ another public schooler said.
‘The private school in my town has a helipad and they were annoyingly rich and sheltered,’ added a third.
Research shows parents believe private schools will provide a better education for their children, and better set them up for success in life.
But the evidence on whether this perception is correct is not conclusive.
One recent study showed NAPLAN scores of children who attended private schools were no different to those in public schools, after accounting for socioeconomic background.
Inside one of ‘s richest private schools
By Olivia Day and Kevin Airs
It’s the elite school with $174million in the bank and a breathtaking new $125million harbourside facelift – but Aussie taxpayers still handed over $6.5million to keep student fees lower for its well-heeled parents.
Century-old Cranbrook, in Sydney’s coveted eastern suburbs, charges from $28,095 for kindergarten day schoolers up to $88,137 a year for its boarding school pupils.
It’s the old school of some of ‘s biggest and wealthiest business names, yet it’s still subsidised by millions of dollars of taxpayer handouts every year.
‘s sixth richest man Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of business software firm Atlassian, attended in the 1980s and 1990s, and his business partner, Scott Farquhar – seventh on the AFR Rich List – now sends his kids there too.
Media magnate Kerry Packer was a proud former pupil and sent his son James there, who later set up ill-fated telco One.Tel with fellow old boys Jodee Rich and Rodney Adler.
Cranbrook is the elite school with $174million in the bank and a breathtaking new $125million harbourside annex (pictured) but still gets government handouts to keep its costs down
Cranbrook is located in Bellevue Hill, 4km away from the CBD and boasts panoramic views of Sydney Harbour and overlooks Rose Bay beach and Point Piper’s waterfront mansions
The new 50-metre Olympic pool took four days and 2.5million litres of water to fill
Other former pupils have included TV supremo David Gyngell, cricket analyst Jim Maxwell, original Mother and Son star Garry McDonald and ABC’s The Newsreader star Sam Reid, among a string of illustrious academics, politicians and sports stars.
But for all its blue ribbon school roll and prime real estate location, it still qualifies for government grants from federal and state funds, despite its bulging bank balance.
Its most recent accounts show it received $4,564,563 in federal grants and another $1,940,960 from the NSW government in 2022, slightly less than the $6.7million total it received in 2021.
The school – which is a registered charity – is prohibited from using the cash for capital works, and must put the money towards the cost of running the school.
With around 1760 students across the school’s various campuses, the grants are effectively worth around $3700 in fee reductions per child.
In its latest financial statement to the Charities Commission, the school revealed it also took in a further $60million from fees, $5million in donations and had $173,683,544 in the bank in 2021.
Its riches have made its facilities state of the art, with a spectacular new renovation opening a year ago which boasts a 50-metre Olympic swimming pool, a 267-seat theatre and a full-size basketball court.
The eye-catching new sandstone aquatic centre replaces the old 25m pool which ‘wasn’t very good for water polo’, school council president Jon North said.
The competition-class pool – which overlooks the beach at ritzy Rose Bay, and Point Piper’s sprawling mansions – took four days to fill with 2.5million litres of water.
On the upper levels of the new Vicars Centenary building sits a 1,600-seat assembly hall, the 267-seat Packer Theatre, a timber chapel and dining commons with a cafe and a gymnasium.
Up to 2,100 tonnes of structural steel – the equivalent of 19 school buses – was used throughout the project which began construction in November 2019.
Former NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos blasted projects like Cranbrook’s as ‘obscene’ in 2022 and the current acting president Amber Flohm has joined the outrage.
She said successive state and federal governments had underfunded public schools.
It had left state school students to take classes in demountables ‘while private schools construct ever more elaborate buildings,’ she told Daily Mail .
‘The current federal and state governments are alive to this challenge.
‘The Teachers Federation will continue to press the case for them to show the right level of ambition to better balance the scales.’
The impressive Cranbrook boarding house caters for students from Year 7 to 12
The renovations cost the school $125million. Pictured is the new 267-seat theatre
The renovations included a new strength and conditioning gym
Pictured is the new four-storey Vicars Centenary building and its dining commons with attached cafe and outdoor seating
Ken Boston, the former director general of NSW Education, has also lambasted the Cranbrook development while the school is still taking taxpayer’s cash.
‘I have no objection to the existence of wealthy non-government schools, no interest in the level of fees they charge,’ he wrote in 2022.
‘But I have a fundamental objection to such schools – which enjoy charitable taxation status, have massive investments, raise millions of dollars in donations, can pick and choose which students they accept and charge fees approaching the national minimum wage – receiving public funding.
‘While the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars cannot be spent directly on facilities, they cover much of the cost of teachers’ salaries.
‘This permits a substantial component of school fees to be spent on the servicing of loans for capital works.
‘It is this which has fuelled the building bonanza in private schools in the past five years, which in NSW alone amounts to $1.5 billion.’
The Anglican school’s badge on their dark blue blazers – costing from $271.50 up to $377 each from the school’s uniform shop – shows the St George’s Cross on a shield adorned with the five Southern Cross stars.
It also features a book to signify knowledge and a Roman lamp to symbolise truth.
Below the crest is the Latin school motto Esse Quam Videri – which means ‘To be, rather than to seem to be’, but it is a shorter version of a much longer quote.
The full quote actually translates as: ‘He chose to be good rather than to seem good; and so, the less he strove for fame, the closer it followed after him.’
Headmaster Nicholas Sampson, who has led the school since 2012, said the renovations had been inspired by the school’s philosophical values.
They were partially funded by $25million of donations from deep-pocketed parents and old boys, including $5million just from fund manager and former student Will Vicars alone.
‘The spaces [are] designed to encourage collaboration and flexible learning to support the school’s International Baccalaureate’s continuum approach and to help ready students for university and life beyond the school gates,’ Mr Sampson said.
In a statement, the school said some of the facilities will be open to the public, including the chapel, both of the pools for squads and learn-to-swim lessons and the theatre for musicals performed with other schools.
It comes after Cranbrook announced it will convert to co-education by 2026 and finally break its boys-only tradition since it began 105 years ago in 1918.
Billionaire Atlassian founder Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson, who have children at the school, led the charge for the school to be reformed.
Billionaire Gretel Packer, son of Kerry and brother of James, sent her two sons to Cranbrook and was also among those who pushed for female students.
After months of heated consultation with parents and alumni, the school announced last July that it would extend co-education to the entire high school.
Girls will join years 7 and 11 from 2026, with the entire senior school co-ed by 2029.
‘There is broad community support for co-education at Cranbrook,’ a letter signed by school council president Jon North and Mr Sampson read.
‘Many see the transition as being a necessary and inevitable step forward in the context of a modern society.’
The school will admit girls in year 7 and year 11 from 2026, meaning there will be students of both genders in each year by 2029.
‘The move will ensure a more balanced ratio and overcome ‘concerns around only having girls in the senior years [years 11 and 12] while the middle years remain single sex,’ the letter continued.
‘By introducing co-education in year 7, students are able to grow together during their secondary education in preparation for the senior years.’
The move to becoming a co-ed may also help Cranbrook continue to qualify for government handouts and eliminate one possible reason to cut the school off.
But Mr Boston says his experiences as a former education chief tells him the government funding system for private schools has to change.
‘This is not simply a matter of social justice,’ he said in an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald last year.
‘It is fundamentally about building and maintaining our national stock of human capital.
‘ will not reap the educational and economic dividends it seeks unless every young person, regardless of circumstances, is given the opportunity to reach his or her full potential.
‘Our tragedy is that far too much funding is wasted in schools that don’t need it to support things that don’t matter.’
Cranbrook has been contacted for comment