Christian schools have embraced the Commonwealth Government’s decision to increase funding to government schools.
The boost will see public school funding rise from its current 20 per cent level to 22.5 per cent by 2026.
Public schools in Western Australia will do even better, with an additional $777 million of funding from the Commonwealth over the next five years, with the state government there having to kick in the same amount, dollar-for-dollar – taking the total extra funding for WA schools to $1.6 billion.
Negotiations with other territories and states across the country are ongoing and, although a similar federal offer to other jurisdictions is on the table, it may take some time to action.
All students should be properly funded
“Christian schools want to ensure that all students are properly funded, including students in government schools,” says Director of Public Policy for Christian Schools Australia, Mark Spencer.
“All students in Australia deserve a high-quality education – and the additional funding by the Commonwealth to increase their funding share to 22.5 per cent of the School Resource Standard (SRS) for Government schools is welcomed.”
Mr Spencer says “the Gonski funding model ensures that student needs are front and centre”, adding that “the Commonwealth government is clearly paying its fair share”.
However, Mr Spencer believes comparing the SRS funding between government and non-government schools directly is misleading. He says the base funding amount for a student in a non-government school is discounted by the ‘capacity to contribute’ of school parents – and is means-tested, unlike government schools.
“The calculated SRS funding for a non-government school will be less than that applicable to a government school with an identical student composition,” Mr Spencer says.
“Saying that a non-government school is funded at 100 per cent of its SRS is still saying that it receives less funding than those students would receive in a government school.”
