Like most revolutions that end up failing those supposed to benefit the most, the Gonski “education revolution” that has poured billions of dollars of extra “needs-based funding” into schools over the past decade hasn’t improved educational outcomes for disadvantaged children.

As inputs have risen over the past decade, student achievement on standardised national and international tests has fallen. Based on the latest PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) test results, it now appears that amid the school closures during the global pandemic, Australia’s increasingly costly and poor-performing school system continued to fail the disadvantaged students with the most to gain from a good education.