School spending squabble holds education reforms hostage

A 10-year school spending and reform deal is set to be delayed for the second year running, exposing the Albanese government to a politically perilous funding fight in the countdown to an election.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car is demanding the federal government double its funding offer to NSW schools. Picture: Newswire / Gaye Gerard

A 10-year school spending and reform deal is set to be delayed for the second year running, exposing the Albanese government to a politically perilous funding fight in the countdown to an election.

NSW is holding school reforms hostage in funding negotiations, leaving Prime Minister Anthony Albanese open to a grassroots guerrilla campaign from teachers and parents.

As the biggest schooling system, NSW is derailing the federal government’s ambitious plan to tie taxpayer spending to measurable improvements in children’s academic performance, school attendance and wellbeing on a national level.

In an all-or-nothing ultimatum, NSW Education Minister Prue Car has threatened to extend the expired National Schools Reform Agreement (NSRA) for another year, unless the federal government doubles its spending offer to state schools.

“We’re not going to sign up to a deal that is less than what we want for our kids in NSW,’’ Ms Car told The Weekend Australian.

“If that means we have to roll something over, then we have to roll something over.

“We need them to produce the 5 per cent (in extra federal funding) … I’m not signing up to anything less than that.’’

Queensland Education Minister Di Farmer declared her solidarity with NSW on Friday, saying “the federal government should provide a 5 per cent increase to 25 per cent’’.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has offered to boost the commonwealth share of school funding to the states from 20 per cent to 22.5 per cent, at a cost of $16 billion over 10 years.

Western Australia is the only state to have accepted, while the commonwealth contribution to Northern Territory public schools will double to 40 per cent, to tackle Indigenous dis­advantage.

Mr Clare yesterday hit back at NSW, saying his offer of $4.1bn extra over 10 years “would be the biggest increase in commonwealth funding to public schools that has ever been delivered’’.

“If the Northern Territory can chip in additional money for public schools, I know NSW can too,’’ he said.

“The NSW government committed to fund the full 5 per cent gap themselves (and) I have offered to cut in half the cost to the NSW government.’’

Education Minister Jason Clare says state governments must split the cost of filling funding shortfalls to public schools. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Oldman

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson says the national curriculum is ‘not fit for purpose’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Federal and state governments have now wasted more than a year squabbling over who should pay for a 5 per cent shortfall in “Gonski’’ funding promised to public schools 10 years ago.

The needs-based funding – known as a Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) – emerged from a review by business leader David Gonski.

He recommended that taxpayer funding be targeted towards disadvantaged students, so extra money is spent on children with a disability or from poor, First Nations or migrant families.

Aside from funding, governments are renegotiating the NSRA, which was due to expire in December 2023 but was extended for 12 months so Mr Clare could negotiate tougher targets and ­reforms to improve public ­schooling.

Mr Clare said yesterday the bonus commonwealth cash must be tied to evidence-based reforms to “help kids catch up, keep up and finish school’’.

“The states have to chip in too,’’ he said.

Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the squabbling over funding and reforms was a “failure of leadership’’ by Mr Clare.

“All (he) has delivered is a full-blown school funding war with the majority of states,’’ she said.

“Australian students and their families are paying the price.

“The Albanese government’s promise to deliver ‘full and fair funding’ to government schools is a mess of its own making, given it is the states and territories, not the commonwealth, which are responsible for the funding shortfall.’’

Mr Clare is also facing mounting pressure to order a review of the national curriculum – last updated in 2022 – in the wake of NSW’s rollout of a more modern and clearly written syllabus.

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) chief executive Geoff Masters – the brains behind the NSW syllabus update – on Friday backed a revision of the national curriculum.

“We have recently reviewed the Australian curriculum, but it does make sense to look at that again, and to see whether there are opportunities for more consistency across the country,’’ Professor Masters said.

“It’s important that it’s clear to teachers what they should be teaching and what students should be learning.’’

Senator Henderson said the national curriculum was “not fit for purpose’’.

“Too many educators struggle to navigate the national curriculum, which is full of lofty ideas but largely devoid of the knowledge school students need,’’ she said.

Mr Clare said the former government had signed off on the latest version of the curriculum.