PM learns Gonski lesson as rich face school hit as public system benefits

UPDATE: Education Minister Simon Birmingham is today spruiking the Federal Government’s so-called “Gonski 2.0”, saying funding for Queensland students will eventually outstrip interstate counterparts.

Mr Turnbull announced his former Sydney Grammar school mate David Gonski would hold a review into how the extra $18 billion over the decade should be spent. Picture: Evan Morgan

QUEENSLAND Government schools will receive an additional $542m in funding over four years under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Gonski 2.0 reforms.

The federal government will start to overhaul the Australian education funding model in next week’s budget in a bid to fix what national Education Minister Simon Birmingham has labelled “a hodge-podge” of arrangements for different states.

Mr Birmingham said Queensland government schools had received about $1.56b in 2017, but it would grow significantly in subsequent years.

“It’s putting in $542m for those Queensland schools over the first four years,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

“Over four years the average per student growth for Queensland government schools is 5.2 per cent.”

Mr Birmingham said independent schools across the state would also have average per student growth of 4.4 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent for Catholic pupils.

“You can see real growth each and every year,” he said.

The 10-year plan is designed to treat all states and schools consistently.

Mr Birmingham said some states would then receive additional “loadings” if they had more students from low socio-economic and indigenous backgrounds, students with a disability or who lived in a remote location.

“If we look at federal funding for Queensland, it will at the end of our transition period mean around $4635 per student, which is around $400 per student more than Victoria,” he said.

Education Minister Kate Jones said while the new funding agreement was better than what was orginally proposed from next financial year, it was about $300 million less than it should be.

“We welcome the revelation yesterday that the funding cuts for schools are not going to be as deep as originally proposed by the Turnbull Government,” Ms Jones said.

“But our modelling overnight clearly shows that the current funding arrangement in place today in Queensland schools, that has been in place for the last four years, if continued, would deliver $300 million more to Queensland schools than proposed by the Turnbull Government.”

She said two independent schools, Hillbrook Anglican School and Cannon Hill Anglican College could receive less funding under the Commonwealth’s funding model..

Federation of Parents and Friends Association of Catholic Schools in Queensland executive director Carmel Nash said the Catholic sector was not consulted before the new funding agreements were announced.

She said parents were already concerned school fees may have to rise and if the cuts are deep, that could become a reality.

“Choice will be taken away from some families,” Ms Nash said.

“It will cost the government more in the end if people then have to go to a state school.”

OVERNIGHT: PARENTS will face higher school fees after Malcolm Turnbull slashed funding for richer schools to help pay for poorer students, in a stunning education move.

At least 24 elite schools, including Cannon Hill Anglican College and Hillbrook Anglican School at Enoggera, will have their funding cut, and about 350 private and public schools across the country will receive smaller increases from next year.

Mr Turnbull, who for months has argued more cash did not equate to better schooling results, announced his former Sydney Grammar school mate David Gonski would hold a review into how the extra $18 billion over the decade should be spent. Picture: Evan Morgan

But more than 9000 schools throughout Australia will be better off under the Prime Minister’s shock embrace of Labor’s Gonski needs-based model, which he yesterday rebranded Gonski 2.0.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham told the ABC this morning that the new plan would result in averaqge growth of 5.2 per cent per public student, while those at independent and Catholic schools would increase by an average of 4.4 and 3.7 per cent respectively.

“You can see real growth each and every year,” he said.

State Education Minister Kate Jones said the new funding deal would equal an extra $1 million, or $2 a student, in 2017-18. But she said that, on current modelling, the state could stand to receive $6 million less funding in 2020-21.

Under the deal, which has to be signed off by the states, $18.6 billion more will be spent in the next decade.

Total Commonwealth funding will almost double from $17.5 billion this year to $30.6 billion in 2027. Federal Labor education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said it would still be about $20 billion short of what the Opposition would spend and was “an act of political bastardry” and “an attack on Australian children”.

At least 24 elite schools, including Cannon Hill Anglican College and Hillbrook Anglican School at Enoggera, will have their funding cut.

The National Catholic Education Commission immediately warned school fees could increase, while Independent Schools Queensland welcomed the overhaul.

Mr Turnbull, who for months has argued more cash did not equate to better schooling results, announced his former Sydney Grammar school mate David Gonski would hold a review into how the extra $18 billion over the decade should be spent.

Mr Turnbull said he wanted the extra cash, in next week’s Budget, to produce better results. “We will get Australian students back to the top of the class, that is my goal, that is my commitment,” he said.

Richer, private schools will be stripped of Commonwealth funding under a plan to give struggling public schools more resources.

Some schools receive funding three times their entitlement, which is determined by the schooling resource standard (SRS). The SRS contains a base amount for each student plus extra cash to address student and school disadvantage.