Victorian schools set for $640m Gonski 2.0 windfall

VICTORIAN public schools will be injected with $640 million of Commonwealth funding over the next four years.

PM Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Education Senator Simon Birmingham. Picture: Kym Smith

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VICTORIAN public schools will be injected with $640 million of Commonwealth funding over the next four years following a landmark education reform clinched early Friday morning.

The Turnbull Government’s “Gonksi 2.0” deal will fast-track funding for the state’s most cash-strapped schools after it was forced to make major concessions to the Senate crossbench.

The deal — which prioritises education funding to low socio-economic regions — will boost overall federal funding for all Victorian schoolchildren on average by $2285 over the decade to $6870 for each student.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the “needs-based” funding would ensure that all schools across Victoria had equal opportunity to succeed and that no student would be disadvantaged by where they grew up.

The deal was lauded by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as “the biggest reform in Commonwealth school funding ever”.

“For the first time, that which has always been aspired to but never achieved has been achieved, Mr Turnbull said. “A national, consistent, needs-based funding right across the country.”

The package was $4.9 billion on top of the $18.6 billion first promised by the government following a week of tense negotiations with 10 Senate crossbenchers, including Victorian Derryn Hinch, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and South Australia’s Nick Xenophon Team.

The changes will replace the 27 separate school funding deals with different states and sectors, with a nationally consistent, needs-based funding model.

Senator Birmingham said the reforms would back hardworking principals and teachers to be “the best they can be” while helping children to achieve the most they could.

He said a fierce campaign against the changes by the Australian Education Union would not stop him working with the teachers’ lobby to improve classroom standards.

“Teaching has always been regarded as a noble profession — and I want that to continue by giving teachers the resources they need to make a difference in the lives of students.”

The next phase of the reforms will focus on how to improve teaching standards with the aim of lifting Australia’s standing among international results,

The federal Opposition opposed the reforms, claiming it was $17 billion less than it would have provided schools had it been in government.

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