Category: Equity in education

A stand-off between the Albanese Government and the NSW and Queensland governments over public school funding has been going on for over a year. The longer it lasts the more public schools will lose. If it is not resolved public schools in the two states could lose nearly $40 billion in funding over the next ten years. Continuing under-funding of public schools will be catastrophic, particularly for disadvantaged students and schools in the two states.

If the stand-off is not resolved, NSW public schools will be under-funded by about $18 billion over the next ten years. Queensland public schools will be under-funded by about $21 billion. This would be disastrous for the learning outcomes of disadvantaged students and for the many under-resourced disadvantaged schools in the two states.

Continue reading “NSW & Qld Public Schools Will Lose Billions if Stand-Off Is Not Resolved”

The latest NAPLAN results reveal the enormity of the challenge facing Australia’s school system. They show vast achievement gaps between rich and poor, a huge proportion of equity group cohorts not achieving national proficiency standards and a very large proportion in need of additional support in their learning. The new results intensify the pressure on the Federal and state/territory governments to fully fund public schools because these schools enrol over 80% of disadvantaged students. Education ministers must end their disgraceful wrangling over who pays for what and co-operate to fully fund public schools and address the vast inequity In school outcomes.

Continue reading “NAPLAN Results Intensify Pressure to Resolve Funding Stand-Off”

The following is a summary of a new Education Research Paper by Save Our Schools. It can be downloaded below.

Data published by the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 show that Australia has one of the most inequitable school systems in the OECD in how resources are allocated between schools and school systems. There are huge resource gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged schools in Australia that are amongst the largest in the OECD.

Continue reading “Education Resource Gaps in Australia Are Amongst the Largest in the OECD”

New figures again demonstrate the bias against public schools in Australia’s school funding system. Government funding for Catholic and Independent schools has increased much more than for public schools since 2009. Government funding has enabled private schools to have a much higher income per student than public schools and to provide more teaching and material resources per student than in public schools. It is extraordinary, but shameful, that Australia’s school funding system so favours the privilege over the under-privileged. The new figures show that the Commonwealth and state governments must fully fund public schools in the new funding agreements being negotiated at present.

Continue reading “Government Funding Increases Continue to Favour Private Schools”

School funding in Tasmania is heavily biased against public schools. Government funding increase have favoured Catholic and Independent schools over public schools. Public schools have fewer resources than private schools and are significantly under-funded while private schools are over-funded. There is vast inequity between rich and poor in school outcomes. High proportions of disadvantaged students do not achieve expected standards and the large majority of these students attend public schools. There is an urgent need to ensure that public schools are fully funded to meet their challenges. All Tasmanian political parties must make this commitment in the election campaign.

Continue reading “Tasmanian Political Parties Must Step up for Public Schools”

The following is an overview of a paper on primary school funding and outcomes prepared for the Australian Government Primary Principals’ Association. It can be downloaded below.

Over the past twelve years, government funding increases have heavily favoured private primary schools over public schools. Since 2009, funding for private primary schools has increased by about three times that for public schools. Funding increases for Catholic and Independent primary schools have ensured their income per student is much higher than that of public primary schools. This provides private primary schools with a large human and material resource advantage.

Public schools are massively under-funded and this will continue until at least the end of the decade unless the current funding arrangements are dramatically revised. Public schools in all states except the ACT will be only funded to 91% or less of their Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) by 2029. By contrast, Catholic and Independent schools will be funded at over 100% of their SRS.

The misdirection of large funding increases to the more privileged Catholic and Independent school sectors has major consequences for national student achievement because money matters in education. Inadequate funding means that public primary schools cannot fully address major learning challenges. Public schools enrol over 80% of low SES, Indigenous, remote area and high disability students. Large proportions of disadvantaged primary school students do not achieve national standards in literacy and numeracy and the achievement gaps between them and high SES students amount to about two years of learning by Year 5.

The new National School Reform Agreement and the new Commonwealth-State funding agreements to be negotiated next year which will apply from 2025 should ensure that public schools are funded at 100% of their SRS. This should include removing the provisions in the current agreements that allow the states to defraud public schools by counting expenditures excluded from the design of the SRS towards their share of the SRS.

Continue reading “Government Funding of Public Prmary Schools”