SOS Australia – Page 7 – Fighting for Equity in Education

Labor’s Amendments to the Education Act Fail to Ensure Full Funding of Public Schools

Trevor Cobbold / October 27, 2024 / Funding

The Labor Government‘s proposed amendments to the Australian Education Act fail in their goal to provide “a pathway to full and fair funding for all schools”. Obstacles remain in the pathway for public schools. The amendment Bill makes a minimalist change to the limit placed on Commonwealth funding of public schools by the Turnbull Government. It fails to remove the blockage erected by the Morrison era funding agreements that allow the states to use “accounting tricks” to defraud public schools of billions in funding.

Labor’s Amendments to Education Act Will Not Ensure Full Funding of Public Schools

Trevor Cobbold / October 16, 2024 / Funding

The Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, has tabled a Bill in the Parliament to amend the Australian Education Act to provide “a pathway to full and fair funding for all schools”. However, the pathway is blocked for public schools and the Bill fails to remove all impediments to full and fair funding for public schools. It also creates a pitfall that could delay funding increases in future. Public schools will remain under-funded by billions even if all states and territories sign up to the Better Fairer School Funding agreements. Other amendments to the Act are needed to support full funding for public schools.

Jason Clare’s Big Lie on Public School Funding

Trevor Cobbold / September 30, 2024 / Funding

The Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, has adopted the “big lie” approach on school funding. He says that special allowances for state funding of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) of public schools are “part of the SRS”. This is factually incorrect. It is contradicted by official documents, his own previous statements and statements by his predecessor while in opposition who said they are “accounting tricks”.

The issue concerns the types of expenditures the states can claim as part of their share of funding public schools. The new funding agreements with Western Australian and the Northern Territory governments (and presumably also with Tasmania) for 2025-2029 allow them to claim funding for capital depreciation and school transport up to 4% of the SRS of public schools. They can also claim expenditures on school regulatory authorities such as curriculum and standards bodies.

Clare’s claim these expenditures are part of the SRS is refuted by:

Guides published by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA);
His own agreements with the WA and NT governments;
Previous bilateral funding agreements;
His own previous comments about the “accounting tricks”; and
His predecessor in Opposition.

Why the New Plan for Fairer Schools Will Fail

sosaustralia / September 28, 2024September 27, 2024 / Equity in education, National issues

The latest results from the annual national literacy and numeracy tests in schools shows what we already knew: Australian education systems are not getting any better or fairer. The Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA) that the federal government is currently negotiating with the states and territories aims to address that problem. But while it may improve the learning outcomes of some students, it could make already-wide learning gaps even bigger.

This agreement, which is to take effect from January 1, lacks a clear definition of equity. That means the targets and measures to achieve it are insufficient. As a result, the BFSA risks broadening educational inequities, and jeopardising other efforts to help close the gap between the most advantaged and disadvantaged students.

Public Schools Could Lose Nearly $30 Billion if Funding Stand-Off Continues

Trevor Cobbold / September 22, 2024September 22, 2024 / Funding, Media releases

Public schools potentially stand to lose nearly $30 billion in funding over the next five years if the stand-off between the Commonwealth and five states is not resolved. National Convenor of Save Our Schools, Trevor Cobbold, said failure to agree on future funding will be catastrophic for public schools.

“Public schools could be denied up to $28.1 billion in funding if the states refusing to sign a new funding agreement choose not to increase their share of funding the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).”

“Public schools in NSW would miss out on $8.7 billion, those in Victoria and Queensland $8.4 billion, $2 billion in South Australia and $0.6 billion in Tasmania. The ACT is also refusing to sign but it is not under-funded.”

Mr. Cobbold said that public schools could miss out on billions in funding because the existing funding agreements will be rolled over if the recalcitrant states refuse to sign the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement 2025-2034.

WA Public Schools Defrauded by New Funding Agreement

Trevor Cobbold / September 3, 2024September 8, 2024 / Funding, Media releases

The public education advocacy group Save Our Schools has accused the Prime Minister of lying about the future funding of Western Australian public schools. “It is a blatant lie to claim that WA public schools will be fully funded under the new schools agreement”, said SOS National Convenor Trevor Cobbold.

“Far from being fully funded by 2026, WA public schools will be under-funded by about $1.6 billion over the next five years. WA public schools will be funded at slightly less than 96% of their Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) in 2026 and remain so until at least 2029.

Schools Found to be ‘Gaming’ Their NAPLAN Results

Trevor Cobbold / August 29, 2024 / League Tables and Testing

Recently published research has found that some schools have manipulated their NAPLAN results by withdrawing low-performing students from the tests. The tactic is designed to make a school’s results look better than it would otherwise. The study found that Independent private schools were twice as likely as public schools to withdraw low-performing students from the tests.

The study found that poorly performing schools are more likely to encourage parents of low-performing students to withdraw their children from NAPLAN tests as a way to boost their school results reported on the My School website.

NAPLAN Results Intensify Pressure to Resolve Funding Stand-Off

Trevor Cobbold / August 21, 2024August 21, 2024 / Equity in education, Funding

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.

Private Schools Serving Richest Families in Australia Are Over-funded by Nearly $1 Billion

Trevor Cobbold / August 18, 2024August 19, 2024 / Funding

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

There are 392 private schools in Australian whose families have an Adjusted Taxable Income (ATI) 0 of $200,000 or more:

8 have an ATI of over $400,000;
50 have an ATI of $300,000-$400.000;
334 have an ATI of $200,000 to $299,000.

Commonwealth Government over-funding of private schools is heavily concentrated in schools serving the richest families in Australia. Commonwealth funding figures are available for 194 schools with a family ATI of $200,000 or more. Of these 194 schools, 140 are over-funded by $861.7 million for the period 2022-2028 inclusive. These schools comprise only 5.5% of all private schools but account for 30% of the estimated total over-funding of all private schools of $2.85 billion over the period. The top 50 over-funded schools with a median ATI of $200,000 or more are over-funded by $545.5 million.

NT School Funding Agreement Includes More Accounting Fiddles

Trevor Cobbold / August 5, 2024 / Funding

The new school funding agreement between the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments brings a much needed boost to public schools funding. However, the claims by the Federal Education Minister, the NT Chief Minister and the NT Education Minister that Territory public schools will be fully funded by 2029 is a deliberate falsehood, that is, a lie. The new agreement continues the accounting fiddles of the previous agreement and includes more fiddles. It means that Territory public schools will continue to be under-funded indefinitely. It sets a precedent for accounting fiddles to continue in other agreements.