School funding: Parents want better spending — not more money
Wouldn’t it be nice to see education policy reflect what parents — not trade unionists — want? And surprisingly it’s not more money, but better spending of funds, writes researcher Glenn Fahey.
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Despite years of hearing that schools are in desperate need of more money — particularly via the ‘give a Gonski’ election campaigns — it turns out parents don’t give much of a Gonski after all.
Of the more than 1000 parents surveyed for Centre for Independent Studies research, 88 per cent believed their school has enough or more than enough funding, including 86 per cent of parents whose children attend government schools.
Australian parents appear to emphatically reject the Gonski claims that “a significant increase in funding is required” and that the government school sector, in particular, is on life support.
It also proves there is little or no credence to partisan political accusations that the federal government has ‘cut’ funding to a disastrous level. Small wonder that those peddling this education snake oil have enjoyed little success at the ballot box in recent years.
The May federal election saw Labor promise an extra $14 billion for government schools over 10 years — in what it boasted was “the biggest investment in public schools in Australian history”.
Yet the issue failed to win over voters. This could be because, as the CIS research shows, the ‘constituency’ that believes schools are under-resourced appears to represent just 12 per cent of parents across the country.
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But while parents aren’t concerned about the level of school funding, they still have strong opinions on other aspects — particularly schools’ use of money and the wider system’s spending priorities.
The good news is that most parents (62 per cent) give schools a tick for how they use their funding — although this confidence varies across school sectors. Fewer parents (56 per cent) who chose a government school are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ confident that funds are used well, compared to those in non-government schools (71 per cent).
Parents may favour arrangements where schools make spending decisions more flexibly and locally — an approach more common in independent schools than in government schools. In some Australian states, particularly in Western Australia, independent public schools operate under a more flexible governance model than in standard government-run schools; which have to abide by highly centralised decision-making.
While a relatively small proportion of parents (5 per cent) say they are ‘not at all confident’ in how their schools use taxpayer funds, this does amount to a potentially whopping sum — roughly $3.5 billion of public funding could be being dispensed despite parents having no faith in its use.
And even though parents generally think schools use money well, they don’t necessarily agree with spending priorities.
Most parents reject the notion that school systems should spend money to increase teachers’ pay — 54 per cent ranking this in the bottom two of available spending options — and almost half (46 per cent) don’t want to see money used for hiring more teachers.
Instead, parents say that money should be spent on building infrastructure and facilities, and on offering more extra-curricular activities.
If Australian schools are actually underfunded, this could reflect a deficiency in funding for capital works rather than running costs.
The priorities expressed by parents are at odds with the ALP’s pre-election vision to “see more teachers in classrooms, smaller class sizes, and more teacher aides.”
And whatever judgment might be cast on parents’ preferences, it pays to remember that they are ultimately the key stakeholders when it comes to spending and educational priorities.
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Governments at both federal and state level — who share responsibility for funding schools — spend most of their funding on staffing costs (accounting for around three-quarters of nearly $60 billion of public funding for running expenses, including around $34 billion that goes to teachers).
The bill for capital is somewhat lighter (around $4 billion in public funding, plus another $1 billion privately). Many extra-curricular activities are funded out of parents’ own pockets.
If education ministers genuinely care about what parents want from schools, they should rethink school funding amounts, priorities, and spending arrangements.
Parents already know that endless money pumped into the school system is not seeing a return on investment in academic terms.
Yet, both major parties seem wedded to the Gonski funding model — albeit with differing levels of devotion. The ALP, in particular, in the midst of its soul-searching, could benefit from ditching its slavish worship of the Gonski commandments.
Policymakers, of whatever stripe, need to acknowledge the clear message from parents that of all the problems bedevilling the education system, a lack of money is not one of them.
And it would be a nice change to see policy decisions on school funding reflect what parents — rather than trade unionists — want.
Glenn Fahey is Education Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies and author of the research paper What do Parents Want from Schools?
Originally published as School funding: Parents want better spending — not more money