Colin Barnett declares Gonski review a goner

WA Premier Colin Barnett says the Gonski recommendations would amount to a federal takeover of the running of public schools.

Geoff Metcalf

SCHOOL funding reform has become the latest flashpoint between the West Australian and commonwealth governments, with Premier Colin Barnett saying the Gonski recommendations would amount to a federal takeover of the running of public schools.

As the heads of state and territory education departments, including Western Australia, met in Sydney yesterday to discuss how the new funding model could be implemented, Mr Barnett questioned the capability of a government to run education when it could not decide on a prime minister.

While the Gonski review had some merit in its recommendations, Mr Barnett said about 70 per cent of West Australian students attended public schools, with the commonwealth playing a "minor peripheral" role, providing only 10 per cent of the funding. "This is the commonwealth trying to say: 'We want your money, we want to pool it, we now want to administer state government schools'. Sorry, ain't going to happen. This is a repeat of the attempt to take over the mining industry; it's a repeat of trying to take over our public hospitals and why, why would you trust education in the commonwealth's hands when they can't even decide who should be prime minister?"

School Education Minister Peter Garrett welcomed the fact that Mr Barnett saw merit in parts of the Gonski review, but said the Premier was wrong to claim it was an attempt to take over public schools. "It's not the federal government's job to run schools," Mr Garrett said. "The states and territories, Catholic and other systems do that very well.

"But as a national government, we have a role to play to ensure that our schools are world class, because our national wealth and economy's success depends on it."

Schools such as Roseworth Primary School in Perth's north, with about nine in 10 children from disadvantaged families and 25 per cent indigenous students, are the focus of the report from the independent review of school funding chaired by businessman David Gonski and released on Monday.

Under the proposal, Roseworth would receive a base amount per student, the same for all students in all schools, that would be supplemented by loadings for disadvantage, such as indigenous students, those with a disability and those with a low socio-economic status.

Roseworth principal Geoff Metcalf said he could always use more money to help his students, and liked the report's emphasis on schools finding solutions at a local level.

The report estimated an extra $5 billion a year in 2009 dollars was required to educate all students to a high standard.

In an effort to boost attendance rates particularly among its indigenous students, the school has a full-time attendance officer, breakfast clubs, a child health nurse, a dental service and a permanent presence by the Smith Family offering scholarships to pay for education costs.

It has started a zero-to-three program, to meet families and build relationships in the community before children start school, and fostering those relationships would be the target of any extra money Mr Metcalf received.

"Kids can be really struggling to get to school because of things that are not to do with the school . . . housing, health, family interrelationships," he said.

"For this school to make a difference with those families, you actually have to widen the circle of influence you've got. You can't just put children in a classroom and say, 'We're going to fix this by teaching you how to read'. There's a whole lot of other social things that are going on in the background that don't allow the kids to get to school."

West Australian Education Minister Liz Constable said the state government would discuss funding reform, but at this stage could see no benefit for the state in following the reforms outlined in the Gonski report.

"Schools are a state responsibility," she said. "We already spend more than any other state on education, our teachers are the highest paid in the nation and we're a long way down the path of school autonomy. We don't need the federal government telling us how to do it."

Dr Constable said the government was also concerned by other elements of the report, particularly adding another layer of bureaucracy in education with recommendations for an independent authority to set the school resourcing standard, and a national school planning body.

The Victorian government shares some of Western Australia's concerns about ceding control of funding levels to an external body, and the potential for the wealthier states to end up cross-subsidising school systems in other states or territories.

Premier Ted Baillieu said last night the federal government had "a lot more work to do" before it would convince Victoria to help fund the plan.

"It is a big plan, but it's a plan to which the commonwealth have made no commitment, for which there's no funding identified and for which there's been no consultation," he said during a trade mission to New Delhi. "It would appear the commonwealth is just suggesting the states should pay for whatever's afoot."

Even though the Victorian school funding model is similar to that proposed in the Gonski report, with baseline funding supplemented by loadings for need, Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon said greater detail about the money involved was required. "We don't want to sacrifice the quality in Victoria to national consistency, that's the bottom line," he said. "We are totally engaged in this . . . but we are not prepared for money received from the federal government to cross-subsidise other states."

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli gave broad support to the direction outlined but was disappointed at the lack of commitment by the federal government.

Julia Gillard reiterated that the report provided insight, while refusing to endorse the recommendations, as she visited a Catholic school in Sydney's west.

The Prime Minister refused to commit to providing extra funding for schools, which the report estimates at $5bn in 2009 figures. She said it was not productive to speculate about figures before the details were worked out.

Additional reporting: Amanda Hodge