Fix school funding ‘shambles’, Victorian Libs warn PM

The Victorian Coalition has savaged Simon Birmingham’s schools funding policy as an “omni­shambles”.

“It’s the heartbeat of the community,” says Sophie Bethune, with daughters Madalyn and Emma, who are in years 6 and 5 at St Brendan’s near Ballarat. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

The Victorian Coalition has savaged Simon Birmingham’s schools funding policy as an “omni­shambles”, accusing the Turnbull government of being more committed to flattering David Gonski’s ego than finding an equitable education policy.

Alarm over bleeding votes in core Catholic areas ahead of the November 24 Victorian election has prompted the extraordinary attack by state Liberal education spokesman Tim Smith.

Mr Smith told The Australian the state Coalition was fed up waiting for the Turnbull government to solve a rift over Catholic schools funding. “The Turnbull government’s handling of this issue is an omnishambles,” Mr Smith said.

“This seems to have become more about protecting David Gonski’s ego rather than looking after parents and children in the Catholic education system.”

As Mr Birmingham, the federal Education Minister, prepares to respond to an independent review handed down last month, which found serious flaws in the government’s approach to funding Catholic and low-fee independent schools, Mr Smith said the time for deliberations was over.

“First, (former education minister) Christopher Pyne kicked the can down the road, then Simon Birmingham kept kicking the very same can down the road,” Mr Smith said. “Our message is, we are now at the end of the road. This needs to be fixed in the next few weeks, not months.”

The blistering attack comes a matter of weeks after key party members visited the provincial city of Ballarat, where they perceived their odds of winning the seat had shortened after Labor candidate Michaela Settle was embroiled in the so-called “red shirts” campaign funding controversy. But Liberal members said they found it hard to talk to voters because of a campaign by the Catholic Church, which had told families and churchgoers that its schools would lose funding as a result of the Turnbull government’s policy.

Catholic schools have been disadvantaged by the Turnbull government’s schools agenda because a funding component determined by the socio-economic standing of each school’s area was flawed. Catholic schools are also worse off under the new package because it hands them a smaller percentage lift in funding than public and independent schools over a decade.

Victorian Liberals fear that anger over the Turnbull government’s school funding changes could cost them the state election.

“The real issue we should all be focusing on is how to use all this extra funding for public and private schools to get better student outcomes, especially in literacy and numeracy,” Mr Smith said. “Let’s fix the funding for Catholic schools.”

But Senator Birmingham rejected the criticism and said the changes would bring more fairness and consistency to the sector.

The Liberals won the recent Tasmanian and South Australian elections while the SES review was under way, he noted.

“Far from kicking any cans down the road, the Turnbull government has shown the conviction to tackle difficult but important ­issues,” Senator Birmingham said. “Projections of the current formula provide an additional $2.9 billion to Catholic education systems and we have been clear that when we implement the SES review’s recommendations, we’ll see an increase to that amount while maintaining principles of fairness.”

Catholic Education Melbourne head Stephen Elder yesterday ­accused Senator Birmingham of refusing to back down to save face. “We repeatedly warned Birmingham that flaws in the SES funding formula produce biased results that unfairly penalise Catholic, Jewish, Islamic and Lutheran schools,” Mr Elder said. “But he went ahead anyway and built his entire new policy on those rotten foundations.”

Victorian Liberals say disenchantment in the Catholic community is hurting them in the electorates of Ballarat, Buninyong, Wendouree and Ripon while federal MPs say the Catholic campaign is cutting through in federal seats in inner Melbourne, where the Greens vote is rising. Mr Smith said Senator Birmingham would do well to take notice. “If John Howard is offering policy and political advice, my instinct is to trust it and not ignore it,” he said.

Parents at St Brendan’s Primary School, near Ballarat, worry the funding changes will erase their school of just 27 students from the map. A new mechanism that determines a school’s SES score based on its region’s pre-tax incomes, as compiled by the 2016 census, has resulted in St Brendan’s score rising five points to 98. Each point is worth about $300 per child at the school, equating to potential funding cuts of $1500 per child and more than $40,000 a year for the school.

Mother of two Sophie Bethune said local families weren’t usually politically motivated, but would do anything to protect the school. “It’s the heartbeat of the community,” she said. “You’ve got parents who work really hard to keep their kids here, but when you’ve got a couple of kids at the school, lifting the fees even just a little bit makes it a lot harder.”

Mother of three Kerri Mc­Gregor said: “If the fees go up you make sure you cover it, but you’re sacrificing other things ... to cover it.”