Federal Budget 2020: Private schools have been given more funding than public schools
Cash-starved universities will pocket $1 billion in bonus bucks, while private schools were handed a bigger slice of the funding pie than public ones in the Morrison Government’s Budget.
Federal Budget
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Cash-starved universities will pocket $1 billion in bonus bucks for research while charities will be paid to help poor kids finish school.
At least 50,000 Australians looking to upskill during the pandemic will get access to government-subsidised short courses at university to study agriculture, health, information technology, science or teaching.
And 12,000 more school leavers will be able to go to university next year, while indigenous school leavers can apply for 2000 scholarships to attend university or win a job.
The Morrison Government’s pandemic budget has poured billions of dollars in extra funding into education, from childcare to schools and universities.
It will spend $299 million to provide an extra 12,000 undergraduate places for Australian school leavers next year.
Adults hoping to upskill will have access to 50,000 online short courses, at a cost to taxpayers of $252 million.
Universities, financially stricken by COVID-19 border closures that have locked their fee-paying foreign students offshore, will be handed $1 billion extra in research grants this year.
Schools will receive record federal funding of $21.5 billion this year, based on need.
Private schools will reap extra federal funding at a faster rate than government schools, which get most of their money from state governments.
Private schools, including grammar and religious schools, will have their funding boosted 25.6 per cent over the next three years, to hit $16.1 billion by 2023/24.
Public schools will see federal funding grow by 21.6 per cent, to $11 billion, over the same period.
Charities will be handed taxpayer money to help the most disadvantaged children get through school during the pandemic.
The Smith Family charity will be handed $38 million to help 76,000 of the poorest students finish high school and move into work, training or further study through the Learning for Life program.
The Clontarf Foundation will be given $40 million to improve the education and employment prospects for up to 12,500 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men.
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Ten remote schools will share in $5.8 million in funding for “direct instruction’’ – a straightforward system of teaching of literacy, numeracy and science.
Nearly $30 million will be spent improving the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) skills of school students.
Women will be lured into STEM careers through a $20 million program of apprenticeship-style courses for 500 women.
“This four-year program will support women to gain career experience and earn a salary at the same time as studying towards an industry-relevant, higher education Advanced Diploma in a STEM field, boosting women’s participation in both STEM-related learning and work,’’ the budget papers state.
Islamic and Jewish groups will share in $6 million of taxpayer funding to “support social cohesion, multiculturalism and community harmony’’.
It will include $3 million for the Anti-Defamation commission to educate people about the Holocaust.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said education would be critical to Australia’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
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