NSW public school funding rules changed to ensure money is spent on students

One NSW public school has enough money to buy a harbourside mansion — but Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says the principals must spend the money on the kids.

Public schools caught hoarding their funding will be stripped of it under a plan by NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell after principals failed to spend more than $1 billion on students.

Hanging on to funds has become so bad one unnamed school was found to have $7.6 million sitting in its bank account at the end of last year — enough cash to buy a harbourside mansion — while another had $5.3m

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the new rules will force principals across the state to stop saving cash for a rainy day and spend it for the benefit of the students it was intended for.

“Principals will no longer be able to rollover funds across years, and measures will be put in place to provide additional support to invest the funding in current students,” she said.

“This may take the form of guidance on teaching practice and learning programs, or extra staff and resources in areas of need.

“We have fought hard to achieve a needs based, sector blind funding model and we must ensure the necessary system-wide tools are in place to deliver this investment to support the current student cohort.”

Strathfield South Public School principal Karen Mortimer with students Luka Matic, Yewon Jang, Kristina Matic and Adhvay Moudgalya. Picture: Toby Zerna

The new rules fall under the recently introduced Carry Forward Policy. Last year only 50 per cent of all schools spent all of their allocated funding, which totalled a collective $10.1 billion.

Despite the record spend on education, some schools have still been charging parents for basics.

That includes Dural Public which last year sent parents an invoice to pay a voluntary $20 paper levy, a $20 voluntary craft levy and a voluntary $20 IT levy.

At Lugarno Public, the school asked parents to pay a $10 paper levy and a $25 technology levy fee for each student.

Meanwhile, Cronulla Public School asked parents in all year levels to pay a levy, including parents of Year 2 students who were asked to pay $90 to cover costs including that for classroom resources, the Mathletics program and the creative arts levy.

Strathfield South Public School principal Karen Mortimer says money raised by parents will not be a part of the new policy. Picture: Toby Zerna

A Department of Education spokeswoman said classroom resources should be paid for under the annual allocation of funding.

“Schools can request contributions for various projects, but parents should never feel like they have to contribute,” she said.

“Schools do not need to fundraise for educational programs or resources for teachers, this is covered in their annual allocations.”

NSW Secondary Principals‘ Council acting president Christine Del Gallo said the new rules made it difficult to save money to carry out big projects like building a new library because you had to spend all the cash.

“We get a certain budget for each year, but all schools have large projects which need doing, often to do with building. You cannot afford to do those within that year‘s budget so you can build up enough money,” she said.

Strathfield South Public School principal Karen Mortimer said money raised by parents at events like community sausage sizzles would be quarantined from the new policy. At her school, she spent funding on an extra teacher to help Kindergarten kids who can’t speak English or supporting students with a disability.

“The money that we’re given is spent on them in the year that it is given,” she said.