BUSTED bubblers, broken toilets and basic learning materials are being paid for with funds raised at barbecues by dedicated parents at Hunter schools.
Fed up and desperately seeking a fairer future for students, teachers rallied at Edgeworth Public School on Thursday morning to demand Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fully fund the Hunter's public schools.
NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens vice president and Hunter representative Glenn Campbell said the state's 30,000 volunteer parents raised $42 million last year for essential infrastructure and classroom materials.
"We shouldn't need to rely on parents to have barbecues and colour runs to be able to provide the basic fundamentals of an education system," he said.
"You've got teachers that are reaching out to their P&Cs to ask for basic teaching materials and you can't have a world-class education system reliant on fundraising by parents.
"We can't have a user-pay system where if parents aren't putting money into their school, their kids aren't getting a quality education."
New research has revealed that by 2022, six in ten NSW private schools were receiving more government funding than comparable public schools.
This is despite public schools educating "two and a half times" the number of students from low socio-educational backgrounds.
Public schools also educate almost three times as many Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander students.
Mr Campbell said it comes down to a question of equity.
"You've got the people who are most disadvantaged, you've got a higher proportion of people with disabilities, you've got a higher proportion of people from non-English speaking backgrounds and Indigenous backgrounds, and they're the ones being disadvantaged," he said.
"There are social costs involved in that we're missing the productivity that we could be achieving as a country, all because we are failing to properly fund public schools, and it just makes no sense."
Key findings from the report show that in 2013, there were 394 private schools in NSW that received more combined state and federal government funding than comparable public schools.
That is an increase from 46.7 per cent of private schools to 59.6 per cent that received more government funding than comparable public schools across the decade to 2022.
Hunter school advocates are calling for a fully-funded NSW public school system, which they say would cost the federal government $1.9 billion.
Federal Minister for Education Jason Clare said the education system is good, but it could be a lot better and fairer.
"Currently, no public school outside of the ACT is fully funded. There's still a five per cent funding gap," he said.
"Most non-government schools are at that level now. Those schools that are above that 100 per cent Gonski level are on a track to come down automatically.
"The negotiations we're having now are about how we fill the public school funding gap: what the Commonwealth Government chips in and what the states chip in and what that funding is tied to."
Mr Clare said an additional $16 billion in funding for public schools has been put on the table, which would be the biggest increase in federal funding to public schools ever delivered.
Agreements for full funding have been reached for public schools in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Negotiations with other states and territories are continuing.
NSW Teachers Federation country organiser Mercurius Goldstein said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was part of the government in 2013 that promised 100 per cent funding to public schools.
"It is a fundamentally unfair and inequitable arrangement to have the students who are at the most disadvantage and with the greatest level of need to be underfunded in their education by the federal government," he said.
"The same government which is providing over 100 per cent funding to six out of 10 private schools, sending more money to private schools than comparable public schools."
Mr Goldstein said the state government provides 75 per cent of public school funding, what they are asking for is for the federal government to lift its share from 20 per cent to 25 per cent.
"It's the fair go that Australians always tell ourselves we give everybody, well this is Anthony Albanese's chance to prove it," he said.
"Mr Albanese actually has an opportunity here to be that Prime Minister who leaves a historic national legacy.
"That promise was first made in 2013, we've had a whole generation of school students go from Kindergarten to Year 12 without the 100 per cent funding that was promised to them."
More rallies will be held on Friday at Swansea Public School and Francis Greenway High School.
The Newcastle Herald has contacted Federal Hunter MP Dan Repacholi for comment.
