Public schools have suffered a double blow in the last fortnight. The Morrison Government announced a $4.6 billion appeasement deal for private schools with no increase for public schools. Last week The Guardian exposed how Labor and Coalition state governments are trying to evade commitments to increase their funding of public schools through a subterfuge. If successful, public schools, which enrol over 80% of disadvantaged students, could lose up to $2.6 billion a year. Public schools need and deserve better than this. (more…)
Trevor Cobbold
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Have Kids Stopped Trying on PISA and NAPLAN?
A much-ignored aspect of school results in Australia over the past decade or more is the sharp contrast between declining or stagnating scores on international and national tests for Years 9 and 10 and solid improvements in Year 12 results. How is it that trends in school outcomes only two or three Year levels apart are so different? (more…)
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New figures show States have cut funding to public schools.
New figures show that government funding increases have massively favoured private schools over public schools across Australia since 2009. Total government funding per student in public schools was cut between 2009 and 2016 while large funding increases were provided to Catholic and Independent schools. Even during the Gonski funding period of 2013-2016 funding increases for private schools far outstripped the increase for public schools.
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New figures show States have cut funding to public schools.
New figures show that government funding increases have massively favoured private schools over public schools across Australia since 2009. Total government funding per student in public schools was cut between 2009 and 2016 while large funding increases were provided to Catholic and Independent schools. Even during the Gonski funding period of 2013-2016, funding increases for private schools far outstripped the increase for public schools. (more…)
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Labor is a Specialist in Special Deals for Private Schools
Bill Shorten has committed Labor to standing “shoulder to shoulder” with the Catholic school system. He promised it $250 million over two years and billions more over a decade. Catholic Education Victoria reciprocated by campaigning on behalf of Labor in the Batman by-election. What a cosy deal! More money for Catholic schools in return for electoral favours! (more…)
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The Arms Race Between Elite Sydney Private Schools is Fuelled by Govt Over-Funding.
New figures show that the arms race in ostentatious facilities between elite private schools in Sydney is being fuelled by more than $170 million a year in government over-funding. Over-funding frees up private income from hefty fees and donations to finance opulent buildings and facilities in competition with other elite schools. It denies much needed resources for disadvantaged schools facing severe shortages in teaching staff, educational materials and modern classroom buildings. (more…)
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NSW Public Schools Benefit Under Gonski 1.0
New school funding figures show that public schools were the main beneficiaries of the Gonski 1.0 funding plan in NSW. Public schools received a funding increase nearly double that for private schools and it reversed the previous trend of large funding cuts to public schools. However, public schools in NSW remain significantly under-funded while private schools are over-funded. (more…)
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ACT private schools have the mother of all special deals
The Turnbull Government promised to eliminate all special deals for private schools under its Gonski 2.0 funding plan. However, new data released through Senate Estimates reveal that the $58 million adjustment fund for ACT private schools announced last year is the mother of all special deals. (more…)
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Govt. Failure to Ensure Private School Systems Distribute Funding According to Need Will Continue Under Gonski 2.0
A recent report by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has slammed the Commonwealth Government for failing to ensure its funding of private school systems is distributed according to need and for not knowing how private school systems distribute their funding. The report is a scathing indictment of a massive failure of ministerial responsibility and government administration. Yet, this failure is likely to continue under Gonski 2.0, as it has for the past decade or more. (more…)
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Gonski 2.0 is the best special deal private schools have ever had
The Prime Minister says that Gonski 2.0 is “fair, it’s needs-based and it’s consistent”. However, confidential data released by the Commonwealth Department of Education under FOI contradicts his claim. It shows a massive increase in over-funding of private schools by 2027 and continuing under-funding of public schools. (more…)
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Elite Melbourne Private Schools to Get Big Funding Windfalls
Several wealthy Melbourne private schools are set to get large windfall gains from the Turnbull Government’s Gonski 2.0 funding model after revisions to their assessed student need. Many of the schools will get increases of $1-$3.2 million between 2018 and 2027 because their student need has been revised upwards due to implausible stories about disabilities. (more…)
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Gonski 2.0 is a Fiasco
The Turnbull Government’s Gonski 2.0 funding plan is a fiasco. Public schools will remain under-funded and there will be a massive increase in over-funding of private schools. The Education Amendment Bill before the Parliament to implement Gonski 2.0 should be rejected and an alternative Gonski PLUS model that builds on Gonski 1.0 be developed in conjunction with the States. (more…)
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How has education come to this?
For a country that prides itself on the egalitarian ethos of a ‘fair go’ for all, the latest results from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are a distressing reminder that many are not getting a fair go in education. The egalitarian label is a self-indulgent delusion as far as education is concerned. It hasn’t fitted for some 40 years or more. (more…)
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Disadvantaged Students Denied Adequate Funding by Massive Tax Concessions for the Wealthy
The latest Tax Expenditures Statement shows that Australia can easily afford the Gonski funding plan to bring under-resourced public schools up to the national standard and reduce the large proportion of disadvantaged students not achieving expected benchmarks. It is simply a matter of reducing the tax privileges of the wealthy to support increased learning opportunities for the disadvantaged. (more…)
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The Barnett Government Has Slashed Funding for Public Schools
The claims by the Western Australian Government that it has massively increased school funding in recent years are highly misleading. The fact is that the Barnett Government has taken to the axe to funding of public schools while boosting its funding of private schools. It has abandoned disadvantaged students, the vast majority of whom attend public schools. (more…)
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Resource Gaps Between Advantaged & Disadvantaged Schools Among the Largest in the World
Disadvantaged students in Australia are being denied equal opportunities to learn because they have less access to qualified teachers and material resources than advantaged students. The gaps in access to education resources between advantaged and disadvantaged schools in Australia are among the largest in the world. (more…)
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Labor Again Exposed as Morally Bankrupt on Private School Overfunding
An unholy alliance between Tanya Plibersek and Tony Abbott on overfunding of private schools was again revealed this week. Labor’s position on overfunding was exposed as morally bankrupt, cynical and at complete odds with its supposed support for the principle of needs-based school funding. (more…)
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Birmingham misleads on School Funding and Outcomes
Improving the results of disadvantaged students is the major challenge facing Australian education. Yet, the Minister continues to wilfully ignore the extensive research evidence demonstrating that increasing funding for disadvantaged students is critical to improving outcomes. Five major academic studies published in the last year alone show that increased funding improves results, especially for disadvantaged students. (more…)
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Reversing the Flight to Private Schools Depends on Reforming Australia’s Incoherent and Unfair Funding System
New school enrolment data show that the long-term shift of students to private schools has stopped in recent years. But, whether it will be sustained is uncertain given school funding trends that massively favour private schools.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this month show no change in the share of enrolments between public and private schools over the past three years. Public schools enrolled 65.1 per cent of all students in 2015, the same as in 2013 and 2014. Prior to this, private schools had regularly increased their share since the 1970s.
The figures show different trends in primary and secondary school enrolments. Public primary schools increased their share of enrolments from 68.9 per cent in 2011 to 69.5 per cent in 2015, with small increases each year.
However, the shift to private secondary schools has continued at much the same rate as in previous years, although it did slow markedly in 2015. The public school share fell from 60.3 per cent in 2011 to 59.2 per cent in 2015. The year-on-year growth in private secondary school enrolments has averaged about 0.3-0.4 per cent since 2010, but in 2015 it was 0.2 per cent, the smallest increase since 2009 and 2010.
The shift in primary school enrolments to public schools came largely at the expense of Catholic schools. The share of Catholic school enrolments declined from 19.4 per cent in 2011 to 18.9 per cent in 2015. The Independent school share fell only in 2015, down from 11.8 per cent in 2014 to 11.6 per cent.
The Catholic share of secondary school enrolments fell slightly in 2015 for the first time in decades, from 22.6 to 22.5 per cent. The Independent school enrolment share increased from 17.7 per cent in 2011 to 18.3 per cent in 2015.
While it is important not to read too much into small changes, the figures do suggest a significant change in trend in primary school enrolments. Families now seem to be more inclined to enrol their children in public schools than for many years.
There appear to be a couple of factors behind the change.
One is that there has been a significant slowdown in average weekly earnings growth in the past few years and some families may be finding it harder to pay fees at private schools. Wages growth has been at historically low levels over the past three years – increasing at about 2 per cent a year compared to 3.5-4 per cent in the decade before.
The slowdown in wages growth has probably more affected the ability of Catholic school families to pay fees than those in Independent schools who tend to attract better off families. When families are feeling the pinch, their first option is likely to be reduce expenditure on primary schooling rather than secondary.
The second is that over the past few years there has been increasing awareness in the community that there is little academic advantage in attending private schools. Public schools achieve similar results to private schools for a given socio-economic background of parents. Research findings consistently show that students from a given socio-economic background achieve similar results in public and private schools. Increasing awareness of these findings may be affecting decisions about whether to enrol in private schools.
There can be no certainty that the change in trend will be sustained as the long-term shift to private schools has been fuelled by increasingly skewed government funding. Between 1998-99 and 2013-14, government funding (Commonwealth and state/territory) per private school student, adjusted for inflation increased, by 39 per cent compared with only 17 per cent for public schools.
The situation has been even more dire in recent years. Real government funding for public schools has decreased while funding for private schools continued to increase. Between 2009-10 and 2013-14, public school funding per student fell by 3 per cent but private school funding increased by 10 per cent.
Many private schools serving the most privileged sections of Australian society continue to receive large funding increases while many schools serving the most disadvantaged communities have received only small increases and, in some cases, reduced funding.
For example, government funding of Korowa Anglican Girls School in Melbourne, with 83 per cent of students from the highest socio-economic status (SES) quartile and 1 per cent from the lowest quartile, increased by 38 per cent between 2009 and 2013. In contrast, funding for Northern Bay P-12 College in Geelong, with 73 per cent of students from the lowest SES and 1 per cent from the highest quartile, had its funding cut by 18 per cent.
In Sydney, government funding for Ravenswood Girls School, with 85 per cent of students from the highest SES quartile and none from the lowest quartile, increased by 28 per cent while funding for Punchbowl Boys HS, with 63 per cent of students in the lowest SES quartile and only 2 per cent in the highest quartile, had its funding cut by 3 per cent.
Given this, it is a big call to expect that public schools can hold or increase their share of enrolments. Australia has a distorted, incoherent and unfair school funding system in which privilege trumps disadvantage.
The Gonksi plan promised change. However, it was sabotaged by the refusal of the Abbott and Turnbull governments to fund the last two years of the plan when some $7 billion was due to flow to schools, including $5.8 billion to public schools.
At least Labor has given voters a clear choice on education by promising to restore a large part, though not all, of its original commitment made when it was in government. It offers hope that disadvantaged schools and students will finally get some justice and that public schools will be able to reverse the enrolment shift to private schools over the longer term.
Trevor Cobbold is National Convenor of Save Our Schools
http://www.saveourschools.com.au