Extract from The Guardian
Malcolm Turnbull’s government seeking to sign states up to new deals after refusing to support years five and six of Gonski
The education minister, Simon Birmingham, will argue that Labor’s
school funding agreements with state governments were a “corruption” of
the original Gonski report as he meets state ministers on Friday to
thrash out funding deals for 2018-19.
The Coalition has refused to support the funding agreements previously signed by Labor with the states for years five and six of the Gonski funding deals. The Coalition is seeking to sign up the states to new deals.
Before the election, Birmingham announced the Coalition would tie $1.2bn in new funding to conditions such as student testing and teacher training.
Before the ministerial meeting, Birmingham said an analysis of commonwealth funding for each state and territory showed that, far from having a consistent baseline of funding with loading for disadvantage, Labor’s deals were provided to the highest bidder.
“The Turnbull government is determined to right this corruption of the Gonski report and replace the special deals that Bill Shorten cobbled together as he ran around the country wheeling and dealing with the highest bidder with a new, simpler distribution model where special deals don’t distort a fair distribution of federal funds,” Birmingham said.
“Tomorrow’s meeting will be a chance for education ministers to indicate which areas of our proposed evidence-based reforms they believe we can effectively cooperate on and their views on how we can share the record levels of growing funding most fairly.”
But state education ministers have been furious at the changes, with the Coalition New South Wales education minister, Adrian Piccoli, at the forefront of defenders of the state funding agreements. The NSW government was the first state to sign up to Labor’s Gonski deal.
The Gonski report, written by an independent panel led by David Gonski, recommended consistency in funding using a schooling resource standard to provide the same funding per child, which was then topped up for indicators of disadvantage.
The Gonski report was delivered to Julia Gillard’s government and, before losing office, Labor signed up a number of states and territories. Tony Abbott went to the 2013 election promising “you can vote Liberal or Labor and you’ll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school” but he later recanted.
Before Friday’s education council meeting, Birmingham quoted Gonski panel member Ken Boston, who recently argued “in the run-up to the 2013 election, prime minister Kevin Rudd and education minister Bill Shorten hawked this corruption of the Gonski report around the country, doing deals with premiers, bishops and the various education lobbies”.
Using a generic “cameo” school of 700 students with the same levels of disadvantage, the minister argued the current formula was a corruption of the Gonski recommendation because a single student attracted different rates of funding depending on the state or territory.
For example, a “cameo” individual student in South Australia would receive $2,897 in commonwealth funding, compared with $4,224 for a student in the Northern Territory.
Birmingham said any new school education deal with the state and territories would be tied to “evidence-based school improvement initiatives” and would see funding distribution informed by need.
He said public schools currently receive significantly more government funding than non-government schools.
“Public school students receive significantly more total government funding per student than what goes to private school students,” the minister said. “On average, total government funding for a student going to a public school is over $16,000 per year, while the government support for a student attending a non-government school is $9,300 – more than 40% less.”
The federal and state government need to agree on school funding deals before 2018.
The Coalition has refused to support the funding agreements previously signed by Labor with the states for years five and six of the Gonski funding deals. The Coalition is seeking to sign up the states to new deals.
Before the election, Birmingham announced the Coalition would tie $1.2bn in new funding to conditions such as student testing and teacher training.
Before the ministerial meeting, Birmingham said an analysis of commonwealth funding for each state and territory showed that, far from having a consistent baseline of funding with loading for disadvantage, Labor’s deals were provided to the highest bidder.
“The Turnbull government is determined to right this corruption of the Gonski report and replace the special deals that Bill Shorten cobbled together as he ran around the country wheeling and dealing with the highest bidder with a new, simpler distribution model where special deals don’t distort a fair distribution of federal funds,” Birmingham said.
“Tomorrow’s meeting will be a chance for education ministers to indicate which areas of our proposed evidence-based reforms they believe we can effectively cooperate on and their views on how we can share the record levels of growing funding most fairly.”
But state education ministers have been furious at the changes, with the Coalition New South Wales education minister, Adrian Piccoli, at the forefront of defenders of the state funding agreements. The NSW government was the first state to sign up to Labor’s Gonski deal.
The Gonski report, written by an independent panel led by David Gonski, recommended consistency in funding using a schooling resource standard to provide the same funding per child, which was then topped up for indicators of disadvantage.
The Gonski report was delivered to Julia Gillard’s government and, before losing office, Labor signed up a number of states and territories. Tony Abbott went to the 2013 election promising “you can vote Liberal or Labor and you’ll get exactly the same amount of funding for your school” but he later recanted.
Before Friday’s education council meeting, Birmingham quoted Gonski panel member Ken Boston, who recently argued “in the run-up to the 2013 election, prime minister Kevin Rudd and education minister Bill Shorten hawked this corruption of the Gonski report around the country, doing deals with premiers, bishops and the various education lobbies”.
Using a generic “cameo” school of 700 students with the same levels of disadvantage, the minister argued the current formula was a corruption of the Gonski recommendation because a single student attracted different rates of funding depending on the state or territory.
For example, a “cameo” individual student in South Australia would receive $2,897 in commonwealth funding, compared with $4,224 for a student in the Northern Territory.
Birmingham said any new school education deal with the state and territories would be tied to “evidence-based school improvement initiatives” and would see funding distribution informed by need.
He said public schools currently receive significantly more government funding than non-government schools.
“Public school students receive significantly more total government funding per student than what goes to private school students,” the minister said. “On average, total government funding for a student going to a public school is over $16,000 per year, while the government support for a student attending a non-government school is $9,300 – more than 40% less.”
The federal and state government need to agree on school funding deals before 2018.
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