Funding shortfall is much greater than $2.9 billion

$2.9 billion per annum is a gross underestimation of the level of under-funding of public schools, writes ANGELO GAVRIELATOS.

In 2003 the Schools Resource Taskforce (established by the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs) estimated that the shortfall to reach the National Goals of Schooling was $2.4 billion per annum, which, when indexed, now amounts to $2.9 billion per annum.

Indeed, the $2.9 billion grossly underestimates the true level of funding required as the Schools Resource Taskforce has not yet calculated costs associated with capital, or specific costs associated with special education or with assuring quality teaching for all students.

Recently, public education stakeholders/supporters may have received a letter by Federal Education, Science and Training Minister Julie Bishop asserting that "the perceived $2.9 billion recurrent funding shortfall for state government schools to which your correspondents refer has been promoted by the Australian Education Union. This figure was calculated on the basis of a report prepared by the Schools Resourcing Taskforce and published by MCEETYA [Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs] in July 2005. As detailed in that report, the supposed funding shortfall was an estimate of future need only, based on a number of varying assumptions. Accordingly, any attempt to manipulate these estimates to assert that there is any current funding shortfall would be erroneous."

For the record:

In 2001 the Schools Resource Taskforce established an Agreed Framework of Principles for Funding Schools.

As a first step the Schools Resource Taskforce's work was to establish an understanding of the minimum costs required for high quality schooling. This involved researching the costs of a range of schools across sectors that have no marginal or additional cost pressures and that meet minimum student outcome expectations.

This allowed the Schools Resource Taskforce to establish an understanding of the least amount that can reasonably be spent on a student while having an expectation that the minimum learning goals of the National Goals of Schooling can be achieved. The taskforce then calculated some of the additional or variable costs associated with achieving the National Goals. These included vocational education and training, information communication technology, and some equity costs associated with different student groups.

All the cost factors combined established a minimum cost required for all students to achieve the National Goals for Schooling, consistent with the Agreed Framework of Principles for Funding Schools. This minimum cost was termed the National Schools Resourcing Standard (NSRS).

This standard represents the least expenditure possible for the National Goals of Schooling to be viable and for the funding principles to be applied. It is a national standard based on the best available data and the research methodology and is more comprehensive than any other research activity undertaken in Australia on costs and efficiencies in schooling.

In 2003 total actual expenditures on schools were on average 13 per cent per cent below the standard.

The total additional national expenditure necessary to achieve the Standard in 2003 prices was calculated at approximately $2.4 billion.

Angelo Gavrielatos is the Deputy President.

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Last Modified: 21 Jun 2007