Every year that schools are not funded to the minimum resource standard students will be denied the opportunity to reach their potential, Federation Acting President Joan Lemaire said today.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday announced a 10-year funding plan that would effectively prevent all schools reaching the minimum schooling resource standard. If the Turnbull government fully funded its part of the six-year Gonski agreements signed with several state and territory governments, all schools would reach this standard by 2019.
The resource standard was identified in the original Gonski report, with the goal that funding schools to the standard would give all students the opportunity to achieve agreed national educational outcomes.
The Turnbull plan will mean that some schools will take 10 years to reach the minimum resource standard and some may never reach it.
“The Gonski agreements would deliver $3.8 billion over 2018 and 2019 but Turnbull’s plan offers just $2 billion over the next four school years,” Ms Lemaire said.
“The Turnbull government’s funding cut will mean a lot more students will miss out on the help they need, such as access to one-on-one support and specialist literacy and numeracy programs.”
Mr Turnbull also announced that chair of the 2011 review into schools funding, David Gonski, will conduct a review to “provide advice on how Commonwealth funding should be used to improve student achievement and school performance”. He will be joined by Dr Ken Boston, who was also a member of the original Gonski review panel.
The second review will not examine how much extra funding is needed to ensure that all schools have the resources they need for their students — it will only consider how money is spent. Ms Lemaire said this was because the review would find the Turnbull government’s funding plan is insufficient to provide schools with the resources they need.
Federation will continue to campaign to ensure NSW students receive the full benefit of the NSW Gonski agreement. NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes’ continued advocacy for NSW students to receive full Gonski funding is welcomed by Federation.
Click here to download NSWTF media release.
Click here for AEU media release.