Kevin Rudd opens door to Gonski schools shift as Labor committed to reform

KEVIN Rudd has left open the possibility of substantially changing the style and timetable for the Gonski education funding changes.

KEVIN Rudd has left open the possibility of substantially changing the style and timetable for the Gonski education funding changes after a private meeting with the non-government school sector.

The Prime Minister and new Education Minister Bill Shorten have extended negotiations on regulations with non-state schools on the education changes for a month, double the extension for the states and territories announced last week, after hearing concerns from Catholic schools.

While the passing of laws to protect the Gonski reforms against changes from an Abbott government makes it harder for Mr Rudd to make his own changes, one option to provide certainty to all schools is to delay implementation of the changes for a year until January 2015.

Mr Rudd and Mr Shorten have been told poor policy implementation so far has made it impossible for Catholic and private schools to be enthusiastic about the changes Julia Gillard and former school education minister Peter Garrett passed into law last week.

Catholic education executives have warned Mr Rudd that fees may have to be raised as the funding allocations are adjusted and when final allocations from the federal and state governments are assessed.

Last night senior government sources told The Australian Mr Rudd supported the Gonski changes in principle but wanted to do what he could to help the smooth introduction of the huge changes.

Mr Rudd said today he and Mr Shorten met yesterday with the National Catholic Education Commission, which welcomed the progress of Gonski negotiations.

“This means that the Catholic systemic schools are one step closer to guaranteed extra funding of around $3 billion over six years,” he said.

“On this basis, the NCEC agreed to take forward to state and territory Catholic Education Commissions the final school funding settings that will deliver extra benefits and funding for Catholic school students across the country.”

He said further negotiations would follow with the NCEC and other schooling sectors to finalise the regulations for the new Australian Education Act 2013.

“The full amount of extra funding will flow to every Catholic systemic school in Australia if all states and territories sign up to the Australian government's Plan for Better Schools and contribute their share,” Mr Rudd said.

The non-government school sector remains deeply concerned about the powers of the federal education minister to intervene at an individual school level and uncertainty about funding for the 2014 school year.

Ms Gillard required the states to agree to her conditions by June 30, included the non-government sector in the scheme regardless of state government agreement and insisted the non-government sector sort out its funding by January 1 next year.

The Council of Catholic School Parents and the NSW Parents Council said yesterday neither Ms Gillard nor Mr Garrett explained "to the parents of approximately 420,000 students in Catholic and independent schools in NSW" the new funding model so that parents knew what their funding and school fees would be next year.

"The council remains very concerned that the new funding model is overly complex, difficult to apply and lacks transparency," the parents council said.

"Parents are still in the dark as to what funding arrangements will be in place for 2014 for non-government schools.

"With the current funding agreement running out at the end of the year, parents need to know how much their school fees will be next year."

NSW, South Australia and the ACT have agreed to the national education plan put up by Ms Gillard.

Ms Gillard used the Gonski education changes as a central element of her re-election plans and forced through the legislative changes in keeping with a June 30 deadline for agreement.

Mr Rudd extended the states' deadline until mid-July and has now given the non-government sector a month to put further arguments to the government.

Last Friday, Mr Rudd told The Australian he took "deeply seriously the policy issues raised by Catholic education across the country".

"I want the opportunity to sit down with the heads of both Catholic education and independent schools," he said.

Mr Rudd also said he was "particularly mindful" of the problems associated with lack of clarity for the non-government sector funding for 2014 and the need to plan the school year well in advance.

Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne said Mr Shorten "needs to explain what his predecessor never did, which is how much money are government schools and non-government schools going to get in 2014, 2015 and 2016".

"There is a fox in the chicken coop in this plan and that is that the federal minister for education will have unprecedented power over state schools, and Tasmania, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory don't want that and I agree with them," Mr Pyne said.

The Catholic education system has told the government the current policy could be adapted and outstanding policy concerns eliminated if the ministerial control on funding allocation for individual schools was removed; existing school reporting was used for collecting information and not funding purposes; and national consensus, rather than ministerial orders, governed agreements.