States dig in to fight federal government ultimatum on school funding deal

State education ministers are ganging up against the federal government in a school funding tug of war.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car is leading the states’ rebellion against a federal government deadline to sign a school funding deal. Picture: NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

Cash-grabbing state education ministers are panicking over the federal government’s looming deadline to sign a school funding deal and are demanding their federal counterpart, Jason Clare, clarify his all-or-nothing ultimatum to sign up to student learning targets in return for extra commonwealth cash.

In response to a letter on the ultimatum from six state ministers, Mr Clare is likely to call an unscheduled meeting of all education ministers in the next few weeks.

NSW Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car, who runs the nation’s biggest schooling system, said Mr Clare “appears to be threatening the funding of all schools’’.

She said NSW had already increased its share of public school spending by 2.7 per cent, providing $480m extra this financial year.

NSW had also implemented a phonics check for Year 1 students, as well as small-group tutoring – both of which are prerequisites of the 10-year Better and Fairer Schools Agreement.

“We want to be able to do much more, but to get there we need the commonwealth to put its money where its mouth is and stop playing games with our children’s futures,’’ she said.

“I will not sign any agreement that takes NSW public schools backwards, which is what the options put forward by the commonwealth would do.

“Without giving states the option to roll over our existing ­arrangements, Jason Clare appears to be threatening the funding of all schools – that would be a dangerous overreach.’’

Mr Clare has offered to hand the states and territories an extra $16bn in funding for public schools over the next decade – but only if they agree to teaching reforms, learning targets and student wellbeing initiatives.

The letter to Mr Clare was signed by Ms Car, as well as education ministers Ben Carroll from Victoria, Di Farmer from Queensland, Blair Boyer from South Australia, Joanne Palmer from Tasmania and Yvette Berry from the ACT.

Mr Carroll said the Commonwealth’s proposal “will leave Victorian public school students $1,000 worse off every year”.

“They need to spend less time threatening the states and rethink their priorities,” he said.

The Northern Territory has signed the BFSA deal, pocketing $738m extra over the next five years after the federal government doubled its funding from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of school running costs.

Mr Clare has offered to boost the commonwealth’s share of funding to other states and terri­tories from the longstanding 20 per cent to 22.5 per cent, in return for additional state funding and improvements to literacy and numeracy, school attendance and Year 12 completion rates.

Western Australia has agreed but has not yet signed a deal, while NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT are demanding the federal government double its offer and contribute 25 per cent of public school running costs.

Mr Clare has told the states they must agree to the deal by mid-September and sign it by Nov­ember 15 or miss out on any extra commonwealth cash.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare has given states until the end of September to agree to a 10-year funding deal or miss out on bonus Commonwealth cash. Picture: NewsWire/Lukas Coch

In a letter sent to Mr Clare last week, the state and ACT education ministers demanded an urgent meeting this month.

“Your most recent correspondence appears to indicate the commonwealth government will cease to fund government and non-­government schools in 2025, if one of the enclosed BFSA versions is not executed before 15 November, 2024,’’ the education ministers wrote.

“We seek clarification on this point.

“It is our shared view that BFSA negotiations remain ongoing, and that there continue to be ­outstanding matters requiring our collective consideration and ­resolution.

“We seek your written assurance that in the event jurisdictions do not (sign) … the commonwealth government will work with jurisdictions to make sure that funding for government and non-government schools will not be disrupted in 2025.’’

Mr Clare told The Australian on Sunday that he would not cut funding, and that “the 20 per cent of commonwealth funding provided to the states for public schools is guaranteed’’.

“I want to put an additional $16bn into public schools and tie it to reforms that will help kids catch up, keep up and finish school,’’ he said.

“States can sign up to that and we can fully fund our public schools, or they can continue with their current arrangements.’’