Independent Public Schools scheme: Qld Teachers’ Union lobbied for initiative to be axed

A popular independent public schools initiative has not been guaranteed beyond 2020 — and the State Opposition thinks it knows why.

UNION pressure on the Queensland Government to axe the state’s popular Independent Public Schools initiative is behind a refusal to guarantee the scheme beyond 2020, according to the LNP.

A briefing paper obtained by the Opposition under Right to Information laws shows lobbying by the Queensland Teachers’ Union was the first of three “key issues” in moves this year to review the scheme.

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About 40 per cent of Queensland’s state school students attend one of the 250 independent public schools.

The scheme was introduced under the Campbell Newman-led LNP administration to give schools more autonomy and the power to choose their own staff.

In October Education Minister Grace Grace would only commit to funding the Independent Public Schools scheme “at least” until the 2020 election, and she called on the Federal Government to reinstate funding.

But the four-page briefing note to her office in March noted $12.5 million a year had been set aside for the scheme until 2021-22, under the department’s draft four-year budget.

It noted the union was agitating for the initiative to be dumped, and warned that evaluation of the scheme needed “prompt resolution, given stakeholder concerns”.

Education Minister Grace Grace

Opposition education spokesman Jarrod Bleijie

It would be the second evaluation of the IPS initiative under Labor and was planned to start last December but was delayed by the state election.

Ms Grace approved the March 2018 note, endorsing an estimated $150,000 evaluation.

Shadow Minister for Employment Jarrod Bleijie yesterday said the briefing paper showed union pressure – not funding concerns – was the real reason behind what he claimed was a plan to end the scheme.

He said the note was “more proof” that Ms Grace was covering up the real reason why the scheme was going to be axed.

“It’s purely because the union that runs the Government want it axed, and it will be axed.

“The minister’s briefing note shows her own department budgeted four years of funding.”

The 2018 evaluation, released in October, recommended developing a model of “autonomy and accountability” for all state school principals.

An earlier unpublished 2015 evaluation found independent public schools “reported a mindset change, empowerment, and increased community engagement”, but that schools that weren’t involved felt it had created a “divide” in the public system, according to the briefing note.