Recent media coverage of selected school funding statistics has once again sought to undermine the student focussed, needs based, sector blind school funding model established on the work of David Gonski and his panel of experts.
To help politicians, media, and the public understand how school funding works, Christian Schools Australia has released an infographic outlining the processes the government uses to calculate the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) for every school in Australia. The SRS is an estimate of how much total public funding a school needs to meet its students' educational needs.
'Comparisons of average funding between school sectors, or even the rates of increase in funding can be very misleading', said Mark Spencer, Director of Public Policy for Christian Schools Australia, 'the focus of the model is the educational needs of students, which it calculates well'.
'A non-government school right next to government school may have a higher SRS, a higher need for public funding, depending on the particular students enrolled in each school – and those students deserve that funding'.
'Unlike students in government schools, the base funding for students in non-government schools is discounted based on parental income', Mr Spencer said, 'and these parents are also paying the same in taxes as parents who choose government schools'.
Recent Education Department data[i] indicated that the Commonwealth Government was contributing their agreed share of SRS funding to schools, with funding from States and Territories lagging. The data indicated that:
- only ACT, SA and WA will be funding their government schools at or above 75% of the SRS by 2023
- NSW and Tasmania have committed to reach 75% by 2027,
- Victoria has committed to reach 75% by 2028,
- Queensland is projected to reach 75% by 2032
- Northern Territory has no commitment to reach 75% and is currently estimated to fund their schools at just 59% of the SRS.
'The model ensures that student needs are front and centre', Mr Spencer said, 'and the Commonwealth government is clearly pulling its weight.'
'Questions need to be asked about why States and Territories are not committed to properly funding government schools.'
'Christian schools want to ensure that all students are properly funded, including students in government schools.'
'All students in Australia deserve a high-quality education', he said, 'but divisive and misinformed funding wars are not the answer'.
'We hope that this infographic will help people to understand how funding is calculated so we can have an informed debate'.
