Today’s schools funding announcement by the NSW government confirms the $138 million dollar cut caused by the Turnbull government abandoning the Gonski funding model, said Federation President, Maurie Mulheron.
“While the state government have announced an increase of $80 million, had the Turnbull government honoured the National Education Reform Agreement (NERA), the original ‘Gonski’ agreement, that figure would have been $218 million, with an additional $419 million in 2019,” Mr Mulheron said.
“This highlights the savage cuts to schools resulting from the Turnbull government’s decision to abandon the NERA agreement that had been signed with the NSW government.”
During the federal government’s budget estimates process in June of 2017, the Turnbull government confirmed that its new funding model represented a $22.3 billion dollar funding cut when compared to ‘current arrangements’.
The original Gonski model identified a minimum level of funding, known as the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), needed to improve the outcomes of all Australian students, and implemented an incremental increase of funding over six years to reach that standard in 2019.
“The Turnbull government has walked away from its obligations under the NERA agreement, and now the majority of NSW public schools are not expected to reach the SRS even after ten years,” Mr Mulheron said. “For this reason, we will continue to campaign for a fair funding deal for public schools right up to the next federal election, and beyond if necessary.”