Budget 2022: Private schools lose on upgrades

More money for ‘better schools, happy and healthier students, and more qualified teachers’.

For the first time, public schools will receive the same federal funding as private schools for capital works.

Private schools have been locked out of a new Schools Upgrade Fund to build classrooms and ­libraries as Labor funnels funding to the state sector.

Smart school leavers will be lured into teaching with free ­degrees, while 1500 mathematicians and scientists will be retrained as educators, to plug a national shortage of teachers.

Existing teachers will be ­offered short “micro-credential’’ courses in classroom management to deal with disruptive students, and in phonics-based instruction to teach children to read. Public schools will share in $215m in capital works grants next year for new classrooms, buildings or other major refurbishments and upgrades.

For the first time, public schools will receive the same federal funding as private schools for capital works. Most of a new $271m Schools Upgrade Fund has been earmarked for public schools next year.

“(It includes) $215m in 2023 to help public schools meet the cost of important infrastructure projects such as new classrooms, buildings or other major refurbishments and upgrades, with the total amount equal to the existing Capital Grants Program for non-government schools,’’ the budget papers state.

All schools – public, Catholic and private – will be handed $20,000 each as part of a $204m fund to support student mental health over the next two years.

Schools can spend the money to hire psychologists or counsellors, or pay for camps and excursions, along with “other proven student wellbeing and mental health initiatives’’.

A voluntary free mental health check will be introduced for schools to identify students at risk of declining mental health, with parental agreement.

School ventilation and air quality will be improved with a $32m fund to help schools build outdoor learning spaces, upgrade computer equipment and refurbish classrooms “to keep students and school staff safe’’. In a spending shift designed to win over powerful public teacher unions, the government will accelerate investment in government schools.

Federal funding to government schools – which get most of their funding from state and territory governments – will rise 15.3 per cent over the next four years to $12bn in 2025-26. Under the former Coalition government, funding had been forecast to increase by 12.6 per cent over the same period.

Labor’s spending on private and Catholic schools will rise 11.8 per cent over the next four years to $18.6bn in 2025-26 – slightly higher than the Coalition’s planned increase of 11 per cent.

All schooling sectors will get more money under Labor, a comparison of Tuesday’s budget ­papers with the May budget papers reveals.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said $770m in extra spending would result in “better schools, happy and healthier students, and more qualified teachers’’.

Government schools will be given an extra $900m over the forward estimates, with total payments rising to $44.9m over four years. Non-government schools will be given an extra $1.5bn, with spending totalling $70.1bn over four years. Private schools always receive more federal funding as they rely heavily on tuition fees to pay for running costs.

Education Minister Jason Clare has also secured $56m to provide free teaching degrees for school leavers with an Australian Tertiary ­Admission Rank (ATAR) above 80.

The 5000 bursaries, worth up to $40,000 each or $10,000 per year of study, will also be given to Indigenous, remote and rural students who aspire to teach – with a bonus $2000 payment if they compete their final year practical placement in a regional area.

An extra 1500 mid-career professionals, including mathematicians and scientists, will be given grants to retrain as teachers under a $68m High Achieving Teachers program.

And $27m will be spent to implement recommendations from the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review to improve teacher training, introduce micro-credentials in classroom management and phonics, and support new graduates in the classroom.