In an opinion piece posted on EducationHQ last week, Trevor Cobbold portrays the Choice and Affordability Fund as a backroom bonus for well-connected private schools. Yet his own account acknowledges that the fund operates through clearly defined priorities, work plans that are submitted to the Australian Government, and annual reporting.
Those priorities include emergency assistance, support for disadvantaged students, student wellbeing, fee relief and help for schools moving to a new funding model. If those students were attending public schools, would Cobbold be calling it a slush fund?
Public schools should be fully funded. Independent Schools Australia has always supported that objective. But supporting public schools does not mean a child’s education ceases to be a public responsibility because their parents choose an Independent school, or that targeted help for that family in a crisis is somehow illegitimate.
The fund is not recurrent funding under the Schooling Resource Standard. It is a targeted program. Those are different tools, designed for different purposes.
Consider what the fund has done in the real world.
When severe flooding struck The Cathedral School of St Anne and St James in Townsville, buildings became unusable and the school’s insurance excess put essential repairs beyond reach. Choice and Affordability funding helped repair water-damaged walls and ceilings, undertake roof and tree works, remove mould and restore safe learning spaces.
After the Cairns floods, Peace Lutheran College was able to provide full fee relief to six students whose families had lost their homes and possessions. Cairns Hinterland Steiner School provided bursaries to 25 students from severely affected families. Gulf Christian College used it for fee relief, tutoring, welfare support and technology for remote learning.
In New South Wales, the Waratah Project has helped schools embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, strengthen relationships with Elders and lift student aspiration and achievement. At one special assistance school on Dunghutti Country, the wraparound support helped 15 Aboriginal students complete Year 12 in 2024.
In rural Queensland, the program has helped close the digital divide by providing laptops and network upgrades to students who often lack reliable technology at home. Its special-circumstances stream supports communities affected by drought, flood, bushfire and other shocks. For a farming family whose income has been wiped out, fee relief can be the difference between continuity for a child and another forced upheaval.
Cobbold is happy to attack school sectors, but this ignores the children and families they support.
These are not hidden or abstract accounting entries. They are children returning to safe classrooms. They are families spared more disruption after losing a home. They are Aboriginal students completing Year 12. They are teachers better equipped to support student wellbeing.
The Choice and Affordability Fund does include transition assistance, provided when the Commonwealth replaced the old SES funding method with the Direct Measure of Income model. One can debate the design of any policy, but responsible reform does not pull the rug out overnight after schools have hired staff, taken on debt and made multi-year commitments to families.
A managed transition enables change without unintended disruption. It is how responsible governments implement change without forcing sudden fee increases, cancelled programs or school closures.
Should this program simply continue unchanged forever? No. Independent Schools Australia has already said the program beyond 2029 should be reimagined, with – as is the case for the Choice and Affordability Fund – clear priorities, measurable outcomes, transparency and accountability.
Every public dollar should be scrutinised. But scrutiny means examining evidence. It does not mean applying emotive, loaded labels and ignoring the families who rely on the program.
The real question is not whether public schools or Independent schools deserve support. Australia needs both. The question is whether targeted funding produces public value, protects students and preserves access during periods of change or crisis.
The Choice and Affordability Fund has rebuilt learning spaces, supported vulnerable students, kept families connected to their schools and improved educational opportunity. It did so without taking $1 from government schools.
Calling that a “slush fund” might produce a sharp headline, but it certainly does not describe the reality.
