New South Wales has secured a deal with the commonwealth to fully fund public schools by 2034, leaving Queensland as the country’s only outlier ahead of the federal election.
The agreement is expected to inject $4.8bn into NSW public schools over the next decade and follows more than seven months of stalled negotiations.
It will replicate a historic 5% increase in commonwealth school funding secured by Victoria and South Australia last month, a major win for the states and the education union over who would pay for fully funded public education.
Under current funding arrangements enacted by the Coalition, states and territories contribute 75% of public school funding and the commonwealth delivers 20%, leaving a 5% gap.
Labor’s initial deal, introduced last July, proposed to increase the commonwealth’s funding share by 2.5% to 22.5% – and up to 40% for the Northern Territory due to additional need. State jurisdictions would cover the remaining funding gap.
The deal reached with NSW will lift the commonwealth contribution to 25% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) by 2034, as it has lobbied for, after the state government’s commitment to reach 75% of the SRS in 2025.
It also removes “accounting tricks” introduced by the former Coalition government that have allowed states and territories to claim about 4% of their total funding share on non-school related expenses, such as capital depreciation.
The minister for education, Jason Clare, said the funding wasn’t a “blank cheque” but would be tied directly to reforms including individualised support for students, evidence-based teaching practices, phonics and numeracy checks and mental health and wellbeing support.
“This is big,” he said. “The biggest state in the country has now signed up.”
Asked why it had taken a looming federal election to reach a deal with NSW, Clare said “the truth is that reform is hard”.
“This agreement signed today makes sure this money rolls out,” he said. “The only threat is if Peter Dutton is elected and passes legislation to rip it out … the bottom line is it should’ve been done over a decade ago.”
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said Labor had been “trying to play catch-up” since the Coalition introduced cuts to education in the 2014 budget.
“This is the largest ever federal injection of funds into New South Wales schools ever. By any government,” he said. “What today represents is the values of who we are, not just as the Labor party, but in my firm view, the values we have as Australians.”
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said on Tuesday the commonwealth “drives a hard bargain but we drive a hard bargain too”.
“The state and commonwealth will fight for their concerns, but come to an agreement in everyone’s best interest,” he said. “This is an agreement that’s a gamechanger for the next generation of young Australians and we’re very proud of it.”
The NSW minister for education and early learning, Prue Car, told the media on Tuesday since Gonski was handed down more than a decade ago, “reasonable people around the country” had been asking why public schools weren’t fairly funded.
“Today that finally ends,” she said. “This is not an election commitment, this is something commonwealth government and the state government actually have agreed to, and we have funded.”
The NSW Teachers Federation described the deal as a “watershed moment” for public school students. Its president, Henry Rajendra, said members would now “campaign vigorously” to defend it in the upcoming federal election.
Tuesday’s agreement with NSW follows deals secured with Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania, the ACT, South Australia and Victoria.
Queensland’s minister for education, John-Paul Langbroek, said “productive discussions” were continuing with the federal government.
“We will always fight for the best deal for Queensland students,” he said. “The current funding agreement for Queensland continues until December, and we’ll use this time to negotiate the best possible deal for our schools.”
A one-year rollover for Queensland’s existing school funding agreement was agreed in December last year.
