Victoria’s public school among nation’s most poorly funded

Victoria’s public schools are among the nation’s most poorly funded.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has urged the state to “rebalance” funding allocations to ensure it goes where it is “most needed”. Picture: AAP

Victoria’s public schools are among the nation’s most poorly funded, receiving just 82 per cent of targeted funding per student last year.

The Labor government has ploughed $3.8 billion into school infrastructure over the past four years, and has pledged a further $600 million to upgrade and build new schools if re-elected. However, last year it contributed just 65.5 per cent of the base school funding entitlement for government schools, known as the schooling resource standard (SRS), with the federal government topping up the remainder.

The SRS split is the subject of protracted negotiations between commonwealth and state, which will be put on hold on Tuesday evening when the Victorian government enters caretaker mode.

Under the Gonski 2.0 funding model, government schools will get commonwealth funding equal to 20 per cent of their SRS, with the states and territories required to pitch in the remaining 80 per cent.

With Victoria pushing Canberra to increase its contribution to 25 per cent, a request declined by Education Minister Dan Tehan, the Grattan Institute has urged the state to “rebalance” funding allocations to ensure it goes where it is “most needed”.

In its State Orange Book 2018, released to coincide with the Victorian election campaign, the think tank welcomed bipartisan support for needs-based funding, which acknowledges that it costs more to educate students who are disadvantaged.

It points out that Victoria, along with NSW and Queensland, is falling well short of the 80 per cent recurrent funding target for government schools, but was meeting its 20 per cent target for non-government schools.

“States should be free to fund schools or sectors above the SRS target if they want to, but they should be consistent across sectors,” the report says.

“Victoria … should rebalance school funding so it is consistent across sectors and ensure resources flow to where they are most needed and where they can make the most difference.

“This means reducing state funding to non-government schools and/ or increasing funding to government schools.”

Both Labor and the Coalition have promised new schools and ­facility upgrades tallying hundreds of millions, with marginal seats the major beneficiaries.

Labor has also announced extending preschool funding to three-year-olds, a $51.2m mental health support program for schools and $22.6m to expand learning options for rural students.

The Coalition’s education promises include subsidised textbooks for secondary students, a multi-million-dollar package to help schools buy decodable readers as well as a Year 1 phonics check to boost literacy standards.

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino said the government wanted to negotiate the best funding deal for Victorian schools.

“As we have repeatedly said, we are prepared to significantly increase our share in funding and lift Victoria’s contribution to the schooling resource standard to 75 per cent,” he said.

Opposition education spokesman Tim Smith, who has promised an overhaul of schools’ core values and a review of the state’s curriculum, said the government had failed to secure a funding deal for Victoria’s students.