Reluctant NSW signs up to federal government’s school funding deal

An extra $9.4 billion for state government schools in NSW over the next decade sees Education Minister begrudgingly agree.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes. Picture: AAP.

NSW Education Minister Robert Stokes has grudgingly signed up to the commonwealth’s Gonski 2.0 school reforms, in a move that will deliver the state’s government schools an extra $9.4 billion over the next decade.

While the deal has an extra $3bn in commonwealth funding for NSW government schools to 2027, Mr Stokes was unsuccessful in his bid to have the federal government extend access to its $1.2bn Choice and Affordability fund — labelled a “slush fund” for the Catholic and independent sectors by critics — to all schools.

Instead, the state government will stump up $712 million for a NSW Equity Fund that will go towards supporting struggling government schools. That is on top of the $6.4bn in extra state funding it has committed to the sector.

Mr Stokes told The Australian that the deal was not the outcome the state had been seeking, having urged the federal government to provide fair access to its Choice and Affordability fund, which was announced in September as part of Scott Morrison’s $4.6bn deal with the non-government sector, but he was told the fund did not come under the National Schools ­Reform Agreement that was up for negotiation.

“We were presented with a deal that didn’t treat public schools ­fairly,” Mr Stokes said.

“When it became clear that they wouldn’t (change that), we stepped in to ensure that public schools in need would not miss out.”

NSW is now the second state to agree to the reforms, labelled Gonski 2.0, after South Australia signed up on Monday.

Under the Gonski 2.0 funding model, the federal government has promised a record $7.3bn in recurrent funding for government schools this year, rising to $13.7bn in 2029.

Critics, including the NSW Teachers Federation, have said the $23bn increase falls well short of the original Gonski funding promise, which federal Labor has promised to restore if elected next year.

Federation president Maurie Mulheron said it was “absolutely disappointing” that the federal government had not listened to NSW’s concerns about the special Catholic and independent schools’ fund, “which completely breaches the principles around needs-based funding”.

“There is now a clear distinction — at least at the federal level — between what the two major parties are committing,” he said.

As part of the agreement signed yesterday, NSW has committed to rebalancing funding between the sectors. The state currently contributes 70.73 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard — a measure of the cost of educating each child — falling well short of the 80 per cent target.

In contrast, it contributes more than 25 per cent of the SRS for non-government schools, which receive most of their funding from the federal government, above the 20 per cent state target.

A rebalance will see its contribution to public schools rise to at least 75 per cent by 2027.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said that the agreement confirmed that NSW was committed “to better outcomes for our students”.

“The Morrison government has delivered record school funding. Now we must ensure our record funding will have the greatest impact on student results,” he said.