State goes it alone in Gonski- style plan

WA has tied the introduction of a new funding model for schools based on the needs of students to the cutting of about 500 jobs.

THE West Australian government has tied the introduction of a new funding model for schools based on the needs of students to the cutting of about 500 jobs in schools and the Education Department.

Despite denying last week that the government intended to cut jobs in the education sector, state Education Minister Peter Collier yesterday unveiled a new needs-based funding system for schools and outlined plans that would dismiss about 350 education assistants or teachers aides and 150 jobs from head and regional offices of the department.

The new funding model, to be implemented from 2015, pre-dates the Gonski model adopted by the federal government but closely resembles it in providing a base payment for every student which is then supplemented by additional money for particular disadvantages.

Like the reforms introduced by the federal Labor government and agreed to by NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, the new West Australian model pays supplementary loadings for indigenous students, social disadvantage, non-English-speaking students, disability, small schools and remote or isolated schools.

From 2015, all government schools in the state will receive a one-line budget comprising a salaries component and a cash component, but principals will be free to decide how to spend it and to move money between the two budget components.

Mr Collier said the existing funding system for the state's schools was a "very complex and generic, almost one-size-fits-all approach" that was also an inequitable and inefficient distribution of resources.

"We are moving towards what I think is a more efficient but better-targeted funding model for Western Australia," he said.

"It is a bold decision to make on behalf of a government.

"For the past 20 years, there has been constant talk about the fact the current funding model is inefficient.

"It is simply far too complex; it doesn't provide for the best educational outcomes.

"This is essentially what the Gonski recommendations have asked for, targeting funding appropriately to meet the needs of West Australian students."

While the federal funding model allocates separate base payments for primary students and a higher payment for secondary students, the West Australian system will provide three levels of funding for primary students - preschool, prep to Year 3, and Years 4 to 6 - and another payment for students in Years 7 to 12.

Mr Collier faced accusations of lying about staff cuts after he said on radio five days ago that there was no desire or intent to cut jobs in his portfolio in this term, despite budget plans to cut $280 million from the department through public-sector reforms.

"I genuinely thought we were talking about teaching staff," Mr Collier said.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said Mr Collier had clearly lied to parents and Premier Colin Barnett had "no choice but to sack him".

State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne said Mr Collier's commitment that teaching staff numbers would be maintained applied only to next year.

"Given that we've got a growth in students and they continue to flow into our state, that is a major concern," she said.