Education Minister Dan Tehan ‘close’ to finalising school funding deal
THE Education Minister is reportedly close to finalising a new funding deal to end a damaging war with the Catholic schools sector - but one Liberal MP warns the move won’t revive the government’s fortunes.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
EDUCATION Minister Dan Tehan is reportedly close to finalising a deal to inject an extra $4 billion into schools funding in a bid to end a damaging war with the Catholic sector over funding reforms.
The Education Minister told News Corp this morning his talks with the non-government schools’ sector were still ongoing and were “being conducted in good faith”.
“I am hopeful of making an announcement in coming weeks,” Mr Tehan said.
Mr Tehan was coy over details of the funding agreement, which The Australian reports today will be at least an extra $4 billion for schools.
.@tanya_plibersek on school funding: It is September and schools do not know what their budgets will be next year. That is an extraordinary failure.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) September 18, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/ykweMevBOK #FirstEdition pic.twitter.com/V58RTF6wR7
The publication reports the deal was being finalised in talks last night between Mr Tehan and the Catholic sector and independent schools sector.
It’s more than the funding deal that was reportedly being offered by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to appease the Catholic sector.
Mr Turnbull was reportedly offering $3.8 billion as talks between former Education Minister Simon Birmingham and the sector deteriorated in the wake of last year’s school funding reforms.
The Coalition under Mr Turnbull’s leadership had already committed to spend an extra $23.5 billion on schools funding over the next decade as part of the reforms, modelled on businessman David Gonski’s landmark first report.
The Australian reports the deal being offered by Mr Tehan will go beyond attempting to resolve disagreements between the Catholic and independent schools over the socio-economic-status funding model.
A senior Liberal MP has told The Australian that the Morrison government will struggle to recover from the damaging funding fight with the Catholic sector, which is believed to have contributed to the LNP’s devastating loss at the Queensland by-election in Longman in July.
“It has taken far too long to get this done,” Liberal MP told the publication.
“Simon Birmingham cocked it all up, but this won’t be a vote-winner. All it will do is throw a bucket of money at a problem and it won’t win us any votes. The damage has been done.”