At last, a schools deal all sides might live with

Dan Tehan has done what Simon Birmingham couldn’t.

The new Education Minister has engineered a peace of sorts, largely because this deal is good for the Catholic sector and not as bad for the independents as it might have been.

The key to limiting the fallout with the independents is the shift in transition funding, allowing these schools more time to work towards the new arrangements.

The funding increase is biased towards the Catholic sector because the previous socio-economic-status funding model was deeply flawed and biased against that sector. This is the finding made by the Chaney review into the SES system.

Although the independents get more time to prepare for the new arrangements (sound like a special deal anyone?) their new SES scores will show what cuts will be needed and where for the non-Catholic private schools.

The complexity and sensitivity of this announcement is juxtaposed by the lack of detail in the seven-paragraph statement released by Tehan and the Prime Minister. Less is more for a government that doesn’t want to get tripped up on the fine detail of a policy that contributed to the downfall of a prime minister and exposed the administration to a backlash in marginal seats.

The key political question is whether the Coalition has buckled to the Catholic campaign, led out of Victoria by the faith’s education boss.

The simple answer is yes.

Had Stephen Elder not lit the fuse, nothing would have changed. Birmingham would still have been education minister and Catholic schools would have been exposed to a hammering. Closures, fee rises. The Elder campaign was real and based on evidence.

The lesson from the Birmingham era policy and political debacle is that meek people get meek results.

The independents are already looking to outside advice on dealing with a likely Labor government and the Catholic sector has hired external consultants so it doesn’t repeat its flawed response of appeasement over muscular policy and political advocacy.