Education Minister Jason Clare said the Bill will “protect public school funding from ever going backwards” and enables the Commonwealth to lift its share of funding to public schools above 20 per cent.
“This Bill turns that maximum into a minimum. It turns that ceiling into a floor,” Clare said in a statement.
“It enables the Commonwealth Government to ratchet up funding for public schools … (and) allows the Albanese Government 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 Greens, however claimed the Bill only guarantees that 98 per cent of Australian public schools will remain below the bare minimum funding level for the next decade, “condemning another generation of kids to an under-resourced education and widening the gap between the private and public systems”.
Despite the Bill falling well short of delivering full funding to all public schools, the Greens supported the legislation to lock in, they said, desperately needed Commonwealth support for the long-neglected NT school system, and to safeguard against cuts under a potential Dutton government.
The party has signalled it will push Labor to go much further in the next parliament.
Greens spokesperson on primary and secondary education Senator Penny Allman-Payne said the passage of the Bill “represents another broken promise by an Albanese Government whose weak-kneed incrementalism is making a Dutton prime ministership more likely every day”.
“This Bill guarantees that every public school that is currently underfunded will still be underfunded in 10 years’ time,” she said in a statement.
“That means another decade of overworked teachers, another decade of not enough support and resources in the classroom, and another decade of growing out-of-pocket costs for families whose budgets are already stretched beyond breaking point.
“Meanwhile, the Federal Government pours $51 million a day into private schools, most of which are overfunded.”
Attending a Sydney Harbour launch of the AEU’s pre-election campaign to lobby Prime Minister Albanese to fully fund schools, federal president Correna Haythorpe urged the nation’s leader to “fulfil the promise that was made by Labor more than a decade ago” (when the Gonski review was handed down).
“In the lead up to the last federal election Prime Minister Albanese promised to ensure that every public school was on the pathway to 100 per cent full funding. Yet only 1.3 pert cent of public schools are funded at the SRS currently, the minimum cost of educating a child,” Haythorpe said.
“The Prime Minister must act now and negotiate new bilateral school funding agreements with each state and territory to ensure that all public schools are resourced at a minimum of 100 per cent of the SRS by 2029. The 22.5 per cent offer from the Albanese Government is inadequate and does not deliver on their promise.”
The AEU’s pre-election campaign was launched with a spectacular drone show above Sydney’s skyline urging the Albanese Government to fully fund public schools, as promised.
Featuring more than 300 individual drones, the sky from Sydney’s Botanic Gardens to the Opera House was alight with a dazzling display on Monday night.
“This message above Sydney’s sky is just the beginning,” Haythorpe said.
“We have seen an entire generation of students miss out on this vital funding; we cannot afford for the next generation to miss out as well.”
With school funding negotiations in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria at a standstill, Haythorpe said it was a risky move for the Albanese Government to be heading to the federal election without resolving the impasse and providing the funding needed.
“The vast majority of Australian students and their families in public schools reside in these states and fully funding their local schools matters to them and their communities,” she said.
“With the majority of states yet to sign bilateral agreements, we express our hope that the Albanese Government will prioritise the 2.6 million students in public schools and deliver the full funding required for high quality teaching and learning for all students.”
To address the funding shortfall, the AEU is campaigning to achieve 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.
Neither of these issues, the AEU said, have been addressed by the Better and Fairer Schools legislation.
Unions from the states still negotiating with the Government remain steadfast in their criticism of the Government’s offer.
New South Wales Teachers Federation President, Henry Rajendra said the Government’s failure to fully fund public schools “denies us critical opportunities to meet the needs of all students”.
Meanwhile, AEU Victoria president Meredith Peace said the Government’s decision “to walk away from a promise to fully fund public schools and use students as political pawns in their stoush with state governments, will deny Victorian public school students and their schools billions of dollars over the next decade, resulting in students missing out on the crucial support and programs they need”.
AEU SA president Jennie-Marie Gorman said public school students in South Australia deserve the resources, opportunities and a fully funded school as promised by the Albanese Government.
Queensland Teachers Union acting president Leah Olsson said, “fully funding private schools while Queensland’s state schools miss out is public knowledge, and politicians trying to convince anyone that this shame should continue is underestimating the intelligence and anger of school communities and taxpayers”.
IEU-QNT is calling on non-government school employers to genuinely engage with them and IEU members on the issues of workload and work intensification. “Simply acknowledging the problem or offering vague reports on existing (and often inadequate) workload responses isn’t enough,” branch secretary Terry Burke says.
Meanwhile, the union representing 17,000 teachers and support staff in Queensland and Northern Territory non-government schools said the Bill fails to compel meaningful employer action on excessive teacher workloads.
IEU-QNT branch secretary Terry Burke said while the new arrangements acknowledge teacher workload and staff wellbeing, they fail to require specific and enforceable workload interventions at the school or system level.
“Employers must also be held to account for spiralling workloads in their schools,” Burke said.
“While the Act includes a workload impact assessment to ensure overworked school staff are not burdened by even more administrative tasks, we are calling on non-government school employers to genuinely engage with our union and IEU members on the issues of workload and work intensification.”
Simply acknowledging the problem or offering vague reports on existing (and often inadequate) workload responses, Burke said, isn’t enough.
“Reforms need to mandate specific new workload measures supported by a stricter reporting regime and employers should be held to account by having to demonstrate workload reductions in their schools,” he said.
Burke said the Act also missed the opportunity to resolve long-standing funding shortfalls for all schools.
“Full funding of public schools is essential to complement the work of IEU members and schools in the non-government sector and our union believes that funding must centre on student need.
“Needs-based funding is the cornerstone of an equitable system – it’s vital to close achievement gaps for students from diverse backgrounds.”
Burke said while the Federal Government has increased its contribution to 22.5 per cent of the SRS, this still fails to deliver full funding for the vast majority of Australia’s public schools.
