Millions of dollars sitting in NSW public school bank accounts disappeared last week, spooking principals already grappling with cuts to their operating budgets.
School leaders say long-planned infrastructure upgrades have been put on ice while others fear it will hamper maintenance being carried out on already dilapidated school buildings.
The principal of Sydney Boys High School has put two building projects on hold.Credit: Janie Barrett
The vanishing money comes after teachers were awarded $10,000 pay rises last October while negotiations continue between the states and the Commonwealth over billions of extra dollars in a new 10-year school funding agreement.
Sydney Boys High principal Kim Jaggar apologised to parents when he told them planned works had been put on hold.
“The department has withdrawn funds for both the Table Tennis Project and the Grounds Upgrade – asphalting of additional parking spaces. I am not in a position to know when these projects will get approved to go ahead,” he said.
School leaders were last month ordered to find 1.25 per cent in budget savings at their school and were told unspent funding accumulated over years would be frozen.
NSW Secondary Principals’ Council president Craig Petersen said the money disappeared from principals’ finance dashboard last week without any communication.
“It is causing a lot of angst. We know our public schools are not adequately funded, but now we’ve just had a funding cut,” Petersen said.
Principals were told in 2021 by then-education minister Sarah Mitchell they needed to spend any accumulated money, so funds were used on the students they were intended for. They were given until 2025 to spend the previously accumulated cash.
Petersen said a lack of adequate funding over many years meant in reality principals saved their funds every year to pay for larger projects such as fixing toilets or buying a set of laptops.
Education Minister Prue Car said the move is to ensure money is spent in the right places.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
A principal at a Sydney school, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are ordered not to speak to media, said the cash was desperately needed.
“We operate on very tight budgets, we need every bit of money, the schools are run down, the students are more complex and need more support – we need to be able to spend that money,” the school leader said.
Another school leader in western Sydney conceded some principals had not managed budgets well because they had not been given adequate support from the department when it came to putting the money to good use. However, he said stopping disadvantaged and remote schools from spending the money was doubly unfair.
“With the teacher shortage, the schools couldn’t get teachers, so they couldn’t spend the money,” he said.
“It is money which funds textbooks, tutoring programs – a lot of those things have been cut.”
There have also been funding cuts in the department, with every division required to achieve budget savings of 20 per cent. Contractors have been reduced from 2450 in March last year to 900.
A NSW Department of Education spokesperson would not reveal how much money sitting in bank accounts had vanished.
“We need to prioritise teaching in classrooms and ensure every available dollar is spent on better teaching and learning outcomes,” the spokesperson said.
“School budgets are provided to support the learning of current students within the school calendar year, not for holding for future years. We are supporting principals to manage their budgets to achieve these outcomes.”
NSW Education Minister Prue Car said schools and principals were left to “fend for themselves” under a previous policy which has since been dumped called “Local Schools Local Decisions” which gave principals more autonomy to spend money. Car said that had produced declining outcomes and teacher shortages.
“We are taking action to ensure money is spent in the right places – on teachers and the classroom. The department is supporting principals at every step of the way,” she said.
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