The Federal Government will increase its percentage of funding in the ACT to 22.5 per cent in 2026, up from 20 per cent.

It equals an extra $110.5 million between 2025 and 2029, bringing the Commonwealth’s total contribution to more than $1 billion across the five years.

Funding will be tied to school performance, including identifying and helping struggling students in their early years, whole-of-school support systems and tackling bullying.

The Australian Education Union is pushing for more federal funding so teachers can properly implement the 10-year Better and Fairer Schools agreement that aims to increase education standards.

“Under the current circumstances the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement is not better and it is not fairer for teachers and students,” AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said in a statement recently.

“If it is implemented without the full resources needed for public schools, it will increase the workload of the already stretched teaching profession.”

The AEU said the ongoing negotiations between the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments have failed to deliver a full and genuine pathway to 100 per cent of the SRS due to the Albanese Government’s offer failing to provide a full 25 per cent Commonwealth share of the SRS and failing to deliver on the removal of the 4 per cent depreciation tax from the State and Territory SRS share.

So far only the ACT has reached the SRS.

Education Minister Jason Clare has struck updated funding agreements with Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and the ACT, with NSW, Queensland and Victoria holding out for an increase to 25 per cent.

“This is an important day for public education in the ACT,” Clare said in a statement.

“This is great news for ACT students, families, teachers and school communities and is an important step in building a better and fairer education system.”

ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said the extra funding would boost school quality in the territory and help set children up for success.

“This agreement delivers extra funding for evidence-based literacy and numeracy teaching, more school psychologists and mental health professionals, investment in principal wellbeing and teacher workload reduction initiatives, and more funding for flexible education offerings to ensure all students can thrive at school,” she said.

NSW education minister, Prue Car, last month said the current offer left students in her state shortchanged by $1000 each, despite the state government’s commitment to increase its share to 75% of the SRS in 2025.

“We will continue to demand our fair share from the commonwealth right down to the wire,” she said in a statement.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get a deal for … students.”

Victoria’s education minister, Ben Carroll, said he would continue to negotiate with the Federal Government but was adamant it needed to deliver a 5 per cent increase.

“Victoria has done the heavy lifting … the commonwealth say they have $16bn on the table nationally over 10 years, well Victoria has invested $16.9bn in school infrastructure alone over that time period,” he said.

The ACT Bilateral Agreement can be accessed here.

The BFSA Heads of Agreement can be accessed here.