Budget 2020: COVID schools package cost $1bn

More than $1bn was fast-tracked to the non-government school sector last financial year.

Education Minister Dan Tehan. Picture: AAP

More than $1bn was fast-tracked to the non-government school sector last financial year, as schools took up the federal government’s offer of early funding in return for reopening campuses.

The cost of the initiative has been laid out in the 2020-21 federal budget, which also details the multi-billion-dollar extent of support to the early childhood education and child care sector throughout the pandemic.

The federal government will spend $41.7bn on education this year, including $21.9bn on schools, which, despite representing a 2.3 per cent dip on the prior year, is set to climb to an estimated $27.16bn by 2023-24.

The decrease largely reflects the decision of some non-government schools to receive some or all of their July 2020 recurrent funding in May and June amid concerns that the pandemic would hit enrolments. In return, schools had to commit to reopening campuses, which had been forced to close sending students home to learn, by June 1.

As a result, funding to non-government schools is estimated to be $12.8bn in 2020-21, down from $13.9bn in 2019-21. However, with new schools opening and enrolments increasing, funding is estimated to pick up in 2021-22 to $14.66bn.

Payments to government schools, for which funding primarily rests with the states and territories, will rise 7.6 per cent to 9.07bn this year and a further 16.3 per cent to $11bn by 2023-24.

While school education funding is largely locked in under five-year agreements struck with the states and territories, the federal government has announced a further $150m in initiatives aimed at boosting the education outcomes and job prospects of those most impacted by COVID-19.

Education Minister Dan Tehan said investment in education would be critical to Australia’s economic recovery by “improving support for school students and teachers impacted by COVID-19 and supporting working parents with childcare needs”.

Among the initiatives, $38.2m will go to the Smith Family’s Learning for Life program to help an additional 76,000 disadvantaged young Australians complete secondary school and move into further study, training or work. A further $27.3m will be injected into various STEM programs to improve critical science, technology and mathematics skills of early learners and schoolchildren.

The Clontarf Foundation will receive $39.8m to support young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men improve their education and employment prospects, while Good to Great Schools, founded by Noel Pearson, will receive $5.8m for a pilot program in 10 remote schools and to also expand its Direct Instruction model for teaching literacy to include numeracy and science.

A further $25m has been set aside “to respond to education priorities arising from the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The budget also details the federal government’s commitment to funding 15 hours a week of preschool for all Australian children in the year before they start school, allocating $453.2m until the end of 2021 to “ensure children get the best start to their education”.

Policy around child care subsidies remains unchanged, with payments to families estimated to cost $9bn this year.