The legislation, it says, is “all about enabling governments to fully fund our public schools and tie that funding to reforms to help students catch up, keep up and finish school”, according to a statement.
Over the last eight years the percentage of students finishing high school has dropped, from 83 per cent to 73 per cent in public schools.
This, the Government says, needs to be turned around “and that’s what this legislation is about”.
At present, non-government schools are funded at the SRS, or are on track to get there, or are above it and coming back down to it, while most public schools are not.
“At the moment, the maximum the Commonwealth Government can provide to public schools is 20 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard,” Education Minister Jason Clare said in the statement.
“This Bill turns that maximum into a minimum. It turns that ceiling into a floor.
“It enables the Commonwealth government to ratchet up funding for public schools ... to deliver more funding to public schools and tie that funding to practical reforms to help students catch up, keep up and finish school.”
The Albanese Government has put $16 billion of additional investment for public schools on the table to help fill the gap.
If delivered, this would represent the biggest extra investment in public education by the Australian Government in the nation’s history.
The Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024 amends the Australian Education Act 2013 (the Act) and enables the Commonwealth to lift its share of funding to public schools above 20 per cent.
The legislation removes the funding ceiling that stops the Commonwealth providing more than 20 per cent of funding to public schools and turns that into a funding floor.
This means the 20 per cent will become the minimum, not the maximum, the Commonwealth contributes to public schools.
AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said last week that the Government needs to “urgently resolve the public school underfunding debacle for all states and territories”.
In a statement, she said the Government needs to stump up what she called “true full funding, as promised”, so that every child can reach their full potential.
She said what is required is a full commitment to a genuine 25 per cent SRS share from the Commonwealth and a genuine 75 per cent SRS share from states and territories including the removal of the 4 per cent depreciation tax.
The Government has struck deals so far with the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania, under a 10-year Better and Fairer Schools Agreement that ties new funding to practical reforms to help lift student outcomes, sets targets and improves school funding transparency.
The Tasmania and WA deals will see these two states receive 22.5 per cent of the SRS from the Government by 2026.
“Of grave concern is the uncertainty facing New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT as to whether they will receive a single Commonwealth dollar from January 2025 if they do not bow to the Federal Government’s pressure and sign up to the government’s inadequate offer,” Haythorpe said.
“There is one question that the New South Wales, Victorian, Queensland and South Australian governments will be asking … and that is: ’Why is the Albanese Government prepared to fast track their offer of 22.5 per cent of the SRS to WA and Tasmanian students by 2026 when all other states are facing a funding cliff?’”
(with AAP)