School funding calculator launched by government, hit list grows to 51

Parents can now do the maths on how much their children’s school will be funded with the government’s online estimator.

 

The Turnbull Government has launched its promised online school funding calculator today which reveals the winners and losers of its Gonski 2.0 education package.

Under the new system, the government plans to boost its share of funding from $17.5 billion in 2017 to $30.6 billion by 2027, with the aim to bring all schools to the same needs-based per-student level once state government cash is added. All but 251 of the nation’s 9400 schools will have their funding grow by at least 2.5 per cent, with 4500 getting a more than a five per cent boost.

However funding to 51 private and Catholic schools will be cut or frozen. “We’ve been open and upfront all along that more than 9000 schools are set to receive significant funding boosts according to their need but that also means some schools will have their funding levels frozen or reduced,” Senator Birmingham said.

IS YOUR SCHOOL A WINNER OR LOSER? — THE SCHOOL FUNDING CALCULATOR

The details out today confirm that 24 elite independent schools in NSW, Queensland and the ACT lose funding, including Sydney’s Loreto Kirribilli where parents face a $163 per student shortfall next year, growing to a $2717 funding gap for each student in 10 years.

Parents at St Aloysius’ College face a per-student hole of $117 in 2018, swelling to $2009 in 2027 while the per student shortfall at Brisbane’s Cannon Hill Anglican College will be $519 in 10 years.

In addition, all 27 of the ACT’s Catholic systemic schools will have their funding frozen over the next four years, and some schools in the sector are expected to receive a transition package to bring them into the new model.

However there are big winners among wealthy non-Catholic private schools. The King’s School in Sydney will see its Commonwealth funding increase over 10 years by $19m. Newington College will also get $19m more by 2027 while Knox Grammar receives $13m more. The Scots College will benefit from $10m extra.

In Melbourne, Scotch College gets $14m more over 10 years, while the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane gets $17m extra in federal funding by 2027.

Private girls schools also fare well. Presbyterian Ladies College at Croydon, Sydney, gets a $10m boost, SCEGGS, Darlinghurst is up $5m, while Kambala wins $4m extra.

The Catholic education sector hit out at the launch of the calculator slamming it for peddling “misleading information’’.

Danielle Cronin, the acting executive of the National Catholic Education Commission, said the Coalition was further alienating the sector and causing anxiety among parents.

“The funding model used to populate the website relies on seriously flawed assumptions about the capacity of Catholic school parents to pay school fees,’’ she said.

“Families are already making significant financial sacrifices to send their children to a Catholic school. They justifiably fear their school choice will be taken away if fees have to increase in order to maintain resourcing levels.”

“That will also create anxiety among Catholic school parents as they are being told by the Government that they are able to pay more in school fees than they currently pay.”

Senator Birmingham has also written to schools to defend the funding overhaul, which the government argues introduces true needs-based funding and is centred on fairness.

The package came under internal attack last night when a Coalition frontbencher broke ranks to challenge the fairness of the measures.

Assistant Minister Zed Seselja, a senator from the ACT, strayed off script at a packed Canberra meeting of angry Catholic parents, hitting out at the unequal treatment for Catholic schools in the territory and vowing to fight for “the best possible deal’’.

Monica Bailey, assistant principal in charge of pastoral care at St Mary Mackillop College Canberra, has three children in Catholic schools. She took Sophie, 14, and Daniel, 11, along to last night’s crisis meeting at St Clare’s College in the inner-Canberra suburb of Griffith for ACT Catholic parents.

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Ms Bailey believes she could face annual fee increases of up to $3000 for each child.

“It’s a huge economic strain,” she said. “Me and my husband are working, but there are single ­parents, parents on one income. We have to make sure we’re not turning people away based on their economic standpoint,’’ Ms Bailey said.

Senator Seselja, who has raised the issue of Catholic funding with Senator Birmingham, told the meeting he agreed with Ross Fox, director of Catholic Education in Canberra, that Catholic schools were getting a raw deal in the ACT.

He said the way the socio­economic scores were to be applied in Canberra had “significant drawbacks’’ and ACT Catholic schools were “not elite schools”.

The data out today shows 200 schools, including 151 government schools, will have growth slowed to 2.5 per cent or less for the next four years, while funding to more than 4500 schools will grow by more than 5 per cent.

The online calculator shows funding to schools with similar socioeconomic scores can vary wildly. Mount St Benedict College in the Sydney suburb of Pennant Hills has an SES score of 119 but receives $3888 more in commonwealth funds per student than Newington College in Stanmore.

Brisbane’s Anglican Church Grammar School has the same SES as Sydney’s Covenant Christian School but receives $2713 less per student and less commonwealth funding than it should.

“We’ve been open and upfront all along that more than 9000 schools are set to receive significant funding boosts according to their need but that also means some schools will have their funding levels frozen or reduced,’’ Senator Birmingham said.

While Liberal MPs are anxious about a backlash from Catholic school leaders, they have cooled talk of a “showdown” when they meet in Canberra today for a regular party room meeting that threatened to overshadow the budget. Tony Abbott has expressed concern about the impact on Catholic schools, given the Liberal Party’s belief in school choice, but is not expected to raise the issue in today’s meeting.

Paul Hine, the principal of St Ignatius’ College, Riverview — where both the former prime minister and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce attended — wrote to the school community on the changes.

“While a loss of revenue for any organisation can be disappointing, the college believes that the needs-based adjustment is fair and ­equitable, as it will enable those schools with a very limited resource base to have a greater financial capacity and an expanded resources base into the future,’’ Dr Hine wrote.

The relationship between Senator Birmingham and the Catholic education sector remains soured by the funding changes, with the minister rejecting claims the Catholics had been kept in the dark.

He said there had been “numerous meetings’’ and “I was told sitting in my office that 3.5 per cent growth was what they expected, what they needed to keep up with costs … and we are delivering 3.7 per cent per student’’.

At the end of 10 years, government figures show per-student funding will be higher for Catholic schools, estimated to be $12,493 per student in 2027 compared with $10,853 per independent school student.

Funding growth will be indexed at 3.56 per cent for three years, and then from 2021 shifts to a flexible rate reflecting economy wide inflation and wages growth.

The Catholics estimate this will be 1.9 per cent and cost all schools $250 million in 2021, while the government relies on Treasury modelling to estimate it will be closer to 3.3 per cent.

One NSW MP said he was sceptical of the estimates from Catholic school organisations.

“I don’t think their numbers add up, I don’t think their arguments add up,” he said.

The view was echoed by others who believe the school leaders will need to present more detail to prove their case.

“I don’t think I’ve had a single parent from a systemic Catholic school contact me,” said another Liberal MP with private schools in his electorate.

“Within the party room there’s a bit of anger that the Catholic education authorities are overplaying their hand.”

WITH PRIMROSE RIORDAN, DAVID CROWE