PM outlines multi-billion dollar funding for private schools to end Catholic backlash
PRIVATE schools will get an extra $4.4 billion from the federal government as Prime Minister Scott Morrison moves to end a damaging war with the Catholic sector.
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PRIVATE schools will get an extra $4.4 billion from the federal government as Prime Minister Scott Morrison moves to end a damaging war with the Catholic sector over school funding reforms.
And parents’ income will be used to determine how much funding private schools receive from the federal government under changes to come in from 2020.
Prime Minister Morrison announced the multi-billion funding deal for non-government schools this afternoon amid growing fears that a backlash from the Catholic sector against Malcolm Turnbull’s Gonski funding reforms could cost the Coalition votes at the next election.
Under the package, $3.2 billion will be provided over the medium term to help private schools transition to a new funding model from 2020.
The new model, which uses parents’ personal tax income tax data and residential addresses to determine how much funding schools should get, was recommended in a recent review of the current socio-economic status funding model, chaired by Michael Chaney.
Another $1.2 billion will go to non-government schools that require extra support.
It adds to the $23.5 billion extra funding the government last year announced it would inject into schools over the next decade as part of the transition to the Gonski funding model for private and public schools.
Private schools “needing the most help” will receive the extra $3.2 billion from 2020 to 2029.
An additional $170.8 million will also be available in 2019 to “give funding certainty,” Mr Morrison said in a statement today.
The extra $1.2 billion funding package will be provided for a new fund to “address specific challenges in the non-government school sector, such as supporting schools in drought-affected areas, schools that need help to improve performance and to deliver choice in communities”.
“For students, this will mean the opportunity to get the best results from school,” Mr Morrison said while announcing the extra funding today.
“For parents, it will mean that choice remains affordable,” he said.
“For teachers, it will mean certainty of funding so they can get on with the job.”
Catholic and independent private schools will get to choose when they transition to the new funding model over a period between 2020 to 2022.
Education Minister Dan Tehan announced today the government would be adopting all six recommendations from the Chaney review.
Mr Tehan is understood to have finalised the funding deal this week after lengthy negotiations with the independent schools and the Catholic sector which began when Mr Turnbull was Prime Minister.
Calls for the Prime Minister to intervene to end the war with the Catholic sector grew after the LNP’s devastating loss at the Longman by-election in Queensland in July.
Local Catholic schools had written to parents advising them that the government’s reforms amounted to funding cuts and that Labor was pledging to pour billions more into schools funding.
Catholic education leaders have argued since the Gonski reforms passed Parliament last year that the changes would amount to a $1.1 billion cut to its sector schools.
Hundreds of primary schools would have been forced to double or triple their fees due to the federal government’s funding reforms last year, Catholic education’s peak body said today as it welcomed the multi-billion funding deal.
“Families can only have school choice if there is an affordable alternative to free, comprehensive government schools,” the National Catholic Education Commission’s acting executive director Ray Collins said.
“We commend the new Education Minister Dan Tehan for recognising that the 2017 changes had jeopardised the future of low-fee, low-expenditure schools in areas where they’ve served families for generations.”
.@ScottMorrisonMP: We’re delivering record levels of additional recurrent funding for government schools, growing from $7.3 billion this year, to $13.7 billion in 2029.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 20, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/ykweMevBOK #newsday pic.twitter.com/Df0PKRbmfG
Mr Collins added that the government had accepted the Catholic sector’s position that the sector-blind, needs-based Gonski funding model would only work if the “flawed” socio-economic status funding model was changed and if the need for parents to have the option of faith-based schools was protected.
He said some technical aspects of the 2017 school funding model “still need to be resolved down the track” but today’s changes put low-fee, non-government schools on “a much firmer foundation for the coming decade”.
“Although the changes unveiled by Mr Tehan go a long way to fixing problems caused by the model introduced in 2017, fundamental to our support of this package is the Minister’s agreement to review the new arrangements to ensure they continue to support the government’s policy objectives, including parent choice.”
Labor education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the government was still cutting billions from education funding compared to what Labor had pledged when it was last in government.
.@tanya_plibersek on @ScottMorrisonMP announcing new education package: This approach looks desperate, it looks like a Prime Minister who is trying to get an issue off the table.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 20, 2018
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Greens education spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi dubbed the deal “hush money” to stop the Catholic sector campaigning against the Government.
“This is the worst kind of special deal politics,” Senator Faruqi said.
“The Liberals are giving hush money to the Catholic and Independent school sector to buy their silence in upcoming elections. Equity and need should be what guides education funding, not the most noisy lobby group.”