Gag order on school funds deal

The Coalition has slapped a secrecy order on its revised school funding model given to Catholic and independent school chiefs.

Stephen Elder, executive director of the Catholic Education Melbourne. Picture: Kym Smith

The Turnbull government has slapped a secrecy order on its revised school funding modelling provided last week to Catholic and independent school officials, preventing them sharing the critical data with thousands of affected schools across the county.

The Weekend Australian understands that two officials from Independent Schools Victoria have received the department’s latest official modellingrevealing which schools stand to lose money since a review of the Gonski 2.0 package forced a rewrite of the funding formula for non-government schools. However, it was handed over on condition they sign a confidentiality agreement.

The gag prevents the two ISV officials sharing the data with other staff or any of its 220 member schools, which would be directly affected. The same ban was slapped on the state-based Catholic Education Commissions, preventing schools and parents in both sectors knowing which schools could face fee rises.

The gag follows a promise by Malcolm Turnbull last week to show the government’s modelling to the Catholic archbishops in a goodwill gesture to resolve the year-long dispute. The Prime Minister seized control of the feud with the powerful Catholic schools sector after Education Minister Simon Birm­ingham failed to reach a deal on restoring funding. The Weekend Australian understands the government is looking at a potential package of $1.7 billion.

The Catholic sector’s complaints that it had been ­­short-changed under the Gonski 2.0 funding package announced by Senator Birming­ham last year were vindicated in a review commissioned by the government into the socio-economic-status model.

The review, conducted by businessman Michael Chaney, found Catholic schools were disadvantaged by $1.8bn while independent schools were over-funded.

As the government seeks to rebalance the model, the independent school sector fears it will lose out. Under the status quo, more than 350 Catholic schools, mainly low-fee primary schools, faced ­potential closure, the sector says.

Catholic Education Melbourne executive director Stephen Elder yesterday called on the government to deliver a more transparent process for all stakeholders.

“Simon Birmingham has cast us into the twilight zone,” Mr Elder said. “Instead of the transparency the minister promised, we find ourselves in a murky maze of uncertainty with schools unable to budget for next year because no one has a clue about their funding allotment from the commonwealth.

“The minister is failing the last of the three tests he set himself in May last year. He promised fairer and more needs-based school funding, along with greater transparency. He flunked the first two disastrously and is going down in flames on the third, but it’s school administrators who will get burnt.”

A spokesman for Senator Birmingham yesterday defended the process and said once final funding figures were agreed, they would be “transparently available just as current policy settings are available on the school funding estimator”.

“As part of consultations on the government response to the SES review, certain figures have been shared based on a series of assumptions that are still being discussed with various stakeholders, which they can share under agreed protocols,” the spokesman said.

The Catholic sector previously criticised the government’s use of the estimator, claiming it gave “misleading” information. The sector attacked the government after it ­revamped its original online estimator last year, removing commonwealth funding amounts for Catholic schools and replacing them with average per-student funding projections for Catholic education systems.

Mr Elder said schools now in term three “don’t know what funding they’ll be getting next year”.

“I know the ball-park figures because I’ve been briefed, but before then I had to sign a confidentiality agreement. That means I can’t tell the 500 principals … and that means they can’t plan for 2019. This episode has been disastrous from whoa to go. The least Senator Birmingham could do is end the uncertainty so instead of wandering in the dark we can get on with our real jobs — educating young Australians.”