Labor says to schools: “Let them eat cake”

Concerns in Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia about the potential impact of school funding changes are being dismissed by the Gillard Government, said the Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne today. In Queensland modelling shows one in six schools would be worse off, including Independent, Catholic and Government schools. In the Northern Territory modelling has revealed that about forty schools would be worse off, including independent schools like Kormilda College and some of the most disadvantaged schools like Alice Springs School of the Air. In the Australia Capital Territory, the Association of Parents and Friends of ACT Schools Inc said “the new funding model does not take into account the running costs of schools in the ACT and even with that indexation promised there will be a significant shortfall seen over time”. In Victoria the Independent Schools Association confirmed that “some schools would be worse off because they will receive less under the new model than they notionally would have under the existing arrangement”. In South Australia, the Australian Parents Council has said “the current model will be replaced by one that is very complicated and no more (indeed quite possibly less) transparent”. Schools in SA are suggesting that the indexation being offered by the Government will not even cover the increases in costs to things like teacher salaries. The Independent Education Union has said that the plan will add “massive increases in the reporting requirements of schools and would add yet another layer of workload burden and red-tape to the lives of teachers. It is apparent that quite a number of schools will get little or no extra money and yet be required to undertake a host of extra reporting requirements”. “Schools Minister Peter Garrett must stop dismissing these concerns and claiming “no school will be worse off” when it is clear that many in the sector do not believe him,” Mr Pyne said. May 3, 2013