Catholics suggest school fees will rise

The Parramatta Catholic Diocese has revealed that under Labor’s school funding changes there is a $23 million drop in funding for their schools in 2014. “Their submission to the House of Representatives Inquiry looking at the school funding changes projects families could be hit with a 25 per cent rise in school fees to cover the $23 million shortfall,” said the Shadow Minister for Education Christopher Pyne. “This shows Labor’s claim no school will be worse off is false and parents should be bracing for higher school fees in the years ahead. The Diocese also says the additional reporting requirements under the Governments model “will at least double from the existing level”. Various stakeholders have made critical submissions to the House Inquiry. A Senate Inquiry was this week prevented from holding hearings to examine the school funding Bills and allocated only three days before reporting. The Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA) says the transition arrangements are “highly complex and opaque” and “this level of complexity means it is very difficult for independent schools to understand the implications for their schools”. ISCA also said data the model relies on is “poor quality, inconsistent, inaccurate... A number of loadings are determined utilising ‘proxy’ measures which have proved to be inaccurately and inappropriately identifying educationally disadvantaged students”. The Independent Education Union shares the concerns of the Catholic and Independent Schools and raises “the possible adverse implications for IEUA members’ job security and quality of working life and the potential negative impact on resources available to students in the classroom in 2014. The Government of Western Australia in their submission calls for the legislation to be withdrawn. These new concerns follow State and Territory Governments revealing schools will be worse off with many located in low socio-economic communities. Queensland has found that 160 government schools will be worse off under the funding model while Victoria has suggested that 249 government schools will be worse off and the Northern Territory has highlighted around 60 government schools that will be worse off. “Labor is playing politics with the legislation even though it is clearly riddled with problems. It is not in the best interests of schools, families or children for this to become another Gillard Labor disaster,” Mr Pyne said. 20 June 2013