Catholic schools to fight for NSW cash

NSW Catholic schools are calling on the state government to abandon what they claims are secret plans to cut funding.

NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes. Picture: Jonathan Ng

NSW Catholic schools are ­demanding the state government abandon what the sector claims are secret plans by the Berejiklian government to cut state funding contributions to 595 Catholic schools, including low-fee ­primary schools.

In a shot across the bow ahead of the NSW election in March, Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney wrote to state Education Minister Rob Stokes yesterday, accusing him of presiding over a 10-year program to cut recurrent spending to the schools from 23 per cent to 20 per cent.

In what is looming as a provincial repeat of the war between the sector and the federal government, the powerful Victorian Catholic school lobby has also joined the campaign against the NSW government’s threat to not sign up to the federal government’s revised Gonski 2.0 school funding package.

The Catholic Education Commission of Victoria unleashed on Mr Stokes yesterday, accusing him of peddling misinformation in his claims that the Catholic schools were getting a “special deal” and that public schools needed to be addressed as well.

Despite funding for government schools being the responsibility of state governments, federal contributions to NSW public schools rose 16.4 per cent between 2014 and 2016, compared with a rise of only 6.8 per cent from the NSW government.

VCEC executive director Stephen Elder, who successfully led the campaign against the Turnbull government’s initial Gonski 2.0 policy, accused Mr Stokes of ­creating a “smokescreen for his own government’s failure to properly fund its school system”.

“We have a state government that’s sagging in the polls, threatening to derail a national agreement for schools by demanding more funding for its own school system from Canberra, while at the same time rationing what it gives to public school students,” Mr Elder said.

“This is outrageous when you look at the financial performance of the NSW government. There are simply no excuses for its funding of public schools … This is the grossest political cynicism and Mr Stokes deserves to be exposed.”

 

The NSW Department of Education has told Catholic school officials the state government plans to reduce its own recurrent funding to the sector from 23 per cent to 20 per cent over the next decade.

The sector fears this will happen before the federal government reaches its planned target to meet 80 per cent of the School Resourcing Standard funding for non-government schools.

“In June this year, I wrote to you to express concern at the NSW government’s level of funding support for non-government schools,” Mr McInerney said in the letter, obtained by The Australian. “You will recall I referenced the inadequate contribution to the capital needs of Catholic schools and our concerns at the NSW government’s plan for a decade of declining levels of recurrent funding.

“Whilst the modest uplift in capital support was noted at the time, the substance of our concerns remains unanswered and the government non-responsive.”

Mr Stokes last night sought to head off a war between the NSW government and Catholic schools, telling The Australian he was not opposed to more funding for Catholic schools but that fairness ­required public schools were also part of the deal.

“We have always worked in close partnership with the Catholic, independent and public sectors to ensure the best possible outcomes for all students and all schools in NSW,” Mr Stokes said.

“This partnership must continue if we are to ensure that all schools are funded fairly on a needs-based, sector-blind basis.”

Mr McInerney claimed that while the state government spent $6 billion over four years on capital works for public schools, it spent just $25 million on infrastructure for the 595 Catholic schools across the state.

In the letter Mr McInerney called on the NSW government to commit “to maintaining in real terms its present level of contribution to non-government school recurrent funding and not embark upon a decade of declining contribution to these schools or seek to have one level of government become responsible for the funding obligations of another”.

In an emailed response to Mr McInerney, Mr Stokes claimed funding increases should apply to all schools. This appeared to be in spite of the federal government’s commitment to a $6bn increase in its contribution to state schools over the next 10 years.

Mr Stokes said in the email: “In fact, I welcome increased funding. However, I believe that increases in funding should apply to all schools, and not just some.

“This should continue to be the basis of any long term funding agreement. I hope I might count on your support in seeking equal treatment for all schools across NSW, including the great Catholic schools that you represent.”

Mr Stokes has called for the Morrison government’s $1.2bn fund (part of the $4.5 billion deal) to support non-government schools in drought-affected areas and those that need help to improve performance to be expanded to include public schools.

This is despite state governments being responsible for the vast majority of public school funding, with the commonwealth contributing 20 per cent of the total SRS for government schools.

NSW government sources said the NSW budget had allocated increased recurrent funding to support school education since 2011-12.

The proportion of spending on education in NSW had remained stable at around 25 per cent of total government expenditure from 2012-13 to 2015-16, they said.

State governments must sign up to the $4.5bn funding deal in order for non-government schools to receive the extra money from the federal government.