Funding furore a political risk: MPs warn

Education Minister Simon Birmingham is under pressure from within Coalition ranks over schools funding.

Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham. Picture: Jason Sammon

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham is under pressure to cough up $330 million to appease the Catholic education sector, amid concerns the growing furore around school funding will have serious political consequences.

With some Catholic schools blaming the Turnbull government’s Gonksi 2.0 funding package for next year’s fee rises, the National Catholic Education Commission has ramped up its campaign calling for anomalies in the system to be corrected.

Coalition MPs, particularly from Victoria where the Catholic sector has lobbied hard, have urged Senator Birmingham to intervene, warning it would be politically unwise to allow the issue to drag on for too long.

As The Weekend Australian reported, some east coast Catholic schools have flagged fee rises of up to 12 per cent next year, with principals directly attributing the hikes to federal funding changes.

In Melbourne, fees at Genazzano College and Mater Christi College are to jump 6 per cent in 2018, and Catholic Education Melbourne, which oversees 330 schools, has warned primary school fees will rise up to 5 per cent and secondary school fees up to 10 per cent. Many of these schools have advised parents that under the new model, they are considered “over-funded” and will lose funding as a result.

NCEC executive director Christian Zahra said the new model disadvantaged Catholic system schools compared to independent schools, which had been given 10 years to transition to their new funding level, compared to just six for Catholic schools. “The current system that treats Catholic system schools ... differently to the independents makes no sense; it’s discriminatory and completely unfair,” Mr Zahra said. “We’ve calculated the cost of fixing this to be $330m over the next four years. This is not additional funding that we’re requesting. It’s simply the cost of fixing the inconsistency.”

While the Catholic sector is hoping that the National School Resourcing Board’s review of the socio-economic status methodology used to determine federal funding of non-government schools would go some way to ­resolving the issue, its findings are not due until the middle of next year.

One MP, who declined to be identified, said about 10 Catholic schools in Victoria alone were at risk of closure, which could have devastating consequences in marginal seats.

Liberal MP for Menzies Kevin Andrews said the developments were a concern but not surprising. “If there are fee rises then that’s consistent with what I was saying as far back as late last year,” Mr Andrews said.

“The parents who send their children to non-government schools tend to be people who traditionally have supported us. To make enemies of them just doesn’t make sense.”

Senator Birmingham is to ­attend in Melbourne this week meetings with schools set up by Liberal MPs Julia Banks and Sarah Henderson.

“Compared to the 2014 budget we’ve locked in an extra $1.2 billion for Catholic education ­systems to 2021,” Senator Birmingham said yesterday.

“Our reforms deliver needs-based funding calculated on a consistent basis for all schools, which treats non-government school authorities equally, whatever their faith or background.”

He said talk of fee increases would prompt many people to ask “where is the money going?”.