The Albanese government has been accused of betraying public schools after delaying a new funding agreement by one year.
On Friday, the council of education ministers decided to extend the deal until December 2024, meaning governments will not have to increase public school funding beyond existing commitments until 2025.
The federal education minister, Jason Clare, defended the delay as necessary to conduct a review to ensure funding is directed to the neediest students, but the Australian Education Union (AEU) has warned “resources delayed are resources denied”.
Public schools receive 20% of the schooling resourcing standard (SRS) from the federal government and up to 75% from the states, but due to a loophole for capital depreciation, are set to remain at 91% of full funding for the rest of the decade.
Before the 2022 election Labor committed only to develop a “pathway” to full funding, sparking concern from the AEU that the timeline for improvement was vague.
Trevor Cobbold, the national convener of public education lobby Save Our Schools, said the decision to delay a new national schools reform agreement is “Labor perfidy at its worst” that amounted to a “betrayal of underfunded public schools and disadvantaged students”.
“[The minister] says that public schools are on a path to being fully funded. The truth is they are on a path to never-never land.
“Labor was silent during the election campaign about the future funding of public schools. Now we know why.”
Cobbold said public schools on average receive just 87.1% of the schooling resource standard, and the current timeline was costing them $6bn a year in funding.
The AEU’s president, Correna Haythorpe, said the one-year extension “delays and therefore denies students in public schools the funding they need”.
“There has now been a generation of children who have been denied full and fair funding for their entire school lives. This can no longer continue.”
Haythorpe said the review should confirm governments must “ensure public schools are funded to a minimum of 100% of the [standard] from 2024”.
“The Australian Education Union, as the voice of public school principals, teachers and education support staff, will accept nothing less.”
The Greens have announced they will protest the move by seeking to scrap the 20% cap on federal contributions to government schools, which was legislated by the Turnbull government in the Gonski 2.0 funding package.
Greens schools spokesperson, senator Penny Allman-Payne, said the delay was “outrageous” and would see “public school kids wait another year for a fair go while continuing to pour public money into elite private schools”.
“This decision will also heap further strain on under-resourced teachers and schools, and will worsen crippling teacher shortages.”
Clare said the federal government is still “committed to working with state and territory governments to get every school to 100% of its fair funding level”, noting that the review, to be launched next year, “will focus on driving real and measurable improvements for students from disadvantaged backgrounds”.
These included “regional, rural and remote Australia, First Nations students, students with disability, and students from low socio-economic backgrounds,” he said.
“It will also improve transparency and accuracy of funding. Future funding will be tied to reform.”
Allman-Payne said a review by a panel of eminent Australians was unnecessary because the Gonski report “did the work already” in identifying the need for more needs-based funding.
“This government will have a fight on its hands in 2023 … The Greens will use every lever at our disposal, inside and outside parliament, to push Labor to deliver the funding teachers have been pleading for for a decade.”
Before the 2019 election, Labor promised $14bn over 10 years for public education, but the policy was dropped after it was identified in Labor’s election review as one of the expensive items that required the opposition to propose more revenue raising measures.
The extension of the funding agreement has no impact on non-government schools, which are on a pathway to 100% of the standard by 2029.
