Category: Funding

The new school funding agreements announced over the past few months represent an historic achievement by the Albanese Government. They promise full funding for all public schools after a decade of sabotage of the Gonski funding plan and neglect of public schools by successive Coalition governments. Full funding of public schools offers the prospect of increasing equity in school outcomes. However, there is considerable uncertainty as to whether the promise will be fulfilled.

It is important to understand the state of play of the funding agreements between the Commonwealth and state/territory governments in the context of the Federal election. Will they truly deliver full funding for public schools and when? Is the Coalition’s promise to match dollar-for-dollar genuine? Will the agreements ensure fair funding for all schools? These are pivotal questions.

Continue reading “School Funding Agreements Fail to Guarantee Full and Fair Funding for Public Schools”

A new review of research studies conducted in the United States shows once and for all that money matters in education. The study provides a comprehensive review of research studies on the relationship between school expenditure and student outcomes. Its finding is conclusive – money matters. The review also reviews studies on how money matters by analysing mechanisms whereby more expenditure improves student results. It is the most comprehensive review for many years.

The key findings of the review are:

• Increased funding for schools yields improvements in test scores, school completion, tertiary attainment, lifetime earnings, and other outcomes.
• Spending on both current operations AND capital investment increase student outcomes.
• The benefits are particularly strong for economically disadvantaged students and districts where states have historically underinvested.

Its conclusion is emphatic:

This review shows that a consistent flow of analyses since the mid-2010s, using better data and more sophisticated methods, have confirmed and elaborated on decades of prior research on the importance of adequate and equitable funding in K-12 schools. [p. 41]

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The following is an updated list of studies since 2000 that employed sophisticated statistical methods to analyse the impact of changes in school expenditure on student outcomes. The list is drawn from a new meta-analysis of the studies published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research and a new review of the literature published by the Albert Shanker Institute in the United States.

Continue reading “Studies on School Expenditure and Student Achievement”

Many of Australia’s richest and most exclusive private schools increased their fees for 2025 by between five and 10 per cent, some by even more. Several schools blamed cuts in Federal Government funding as a factor causing them to raise fees. The claims are vastly exaggerated and served only to prompt alarmist headlines about private schools losing funding.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

First, very few private schools will have their funding reduced over the next five years. Almost all private schools will receive funding increases and those that don’t constitute the most over-funded schools in the country, being over-funded by hundreds of millions of dollars. Second, several schools complaining about funding cuts will actually continue to have their funding increased.

Continue reading “Elite Private Schools Whine About Cuts to Their Millions in Over-Funding”

There are no Christmas presents for public schools in new interim funding agreements between the Albanese Government and the major states. Government funding shares for public schools in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia in 2025 will be largely stuck at their previous levels because of continued squabbling between government levels. Public schools in these states will remain  massively under-funded in 2025.

The interminable squabbling between governments over their respective shares of funding public schools is both disgraceful and scandalous. It hinders the learning progress of disadvantaged students and perpetuating large achievement gaps between rich and poor.

Continue reading “No Christmas Presents for Public Schools”