All feathers no meat

Seven years after promising a review of school funding, schools are no wiser about what kind of support they can expect in the future under Labor, said the Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne.

“The Prime Minister’s speech today was all feathers, no meat,” Mr Pyne said.

“Julia Gillard is asking voters to trust a funding commitment made today that won't be fully in place until 2020 which is 3 Federal elections away,” he said.

“The Prime Minister also failed to outline and release the modelling on how much money is required to implement her changes, how much the States must contribute and where the extra billions are coming from.

“Schools need to know exactly how much funding to expect so they can guarantee teachers positions and set school fees.

“They also need to know how much funding will rise each year through indexation so that they can adequately plan for the future.

“Non-government sector authorities have previously described the Gonski model as anomalous, and leaked modelling has revealed that over 3254 schools would be worse off.

“But none of these key issues were addressed in today’s speech.

“The Prime Minister announced several new reporting requirements to be imposed on schools and teachers under Labor’s “National Plan for School Improvement”.

“It is unclear if all of these new reporting requirements to be imposed on schools will be on top of information schools already have to provide to State Governments and the Federal Education Department.

“The Coalition will carefully consult with both the government and non-government sectors to ensure that this new reporting regime does not mean less autonomy for schools and more red-tape.

“Only the Coalition has a policy that will deliver funding certainty to all schools.

“Under our policy every school would secure the recurrent funding levels they get right now. Every school would also see that funding rise by approximately 6 per cent each year to meet the ever rising costs of delivering education.

“We are also the only party committed to a capital infrastructure fund and to addressing the funding inequities that exist for students with a disability,” Mr Pyne said.

September 3, 2012