Labor’s promise to replace a claimed $22 billion cut in Gonski schools funding makes no sense, a leading education expert says.
The opposition, which has sided with the Catholic sector in the latest fight over education funding, has accused the Turnbull government of ripping out $22 billion from schools compared to Labor’s original Gonski funding deals.
But in an analysis of Labor’s $22 billion promise to replace that money, Grattan Institute school education program director Pete Goss identified billions in spending he claims would be wasted.
“Most of Labor’s extra $22 billion is not directed according to student need, and would have little impact on outcomes,” he wrote in a piece for The Conversation.
Dr Goss told The New Daily: “That figure does not make sense.”
“It’s not spent in a way that is linked to student need. Or it’s spread very thinly. Or they splash too much money into schools too quickly,” he said.
Simon Birmingham has stared down a campaign from the Catholic sector. Photo: AAP
Dr Goss said “sweetheart deals” with states and other school sectors would squander $2 billion over a decade, while funding increases for ‘overfunded’ schools “wastes roughly $2-2.5 billion over a decade”.
Other gripes included that the Commonwealth would still “bail out” states that underfunded their schools, that too much money would flow too quickly leading to waste, and that funding increases were indexed at a rate inconsistent with current wage levels.
Dr Goss’s analysis comes as the future of the government’s own schools package hangs in the balance with Labor hoping to block the so-called Gonski 2.0 model in the Senate.
On Monday, the Catholic sector, which is campaigning against the changes, was grilled over growing concerns it has been “funnelling” money from underfunded schools to benefit other wealthier schools under its remit.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young pointed to the case of St Jerome’s Catholic Primary School in Sydney, a school in a low socio-economic area that received $1.3 million less than its funding target.
“What do you think the parents at that school would think about the fact you redistributed … $1.3 million away from that school,” she said.
Catholic Education Commission NSW’s Ian Baker said the decision was made to ensure other schools remained viable.
“Part of what St Jerome’s would be doing in acknowledgment of common good is helping to keep a school open in Bourke, or Wilcannia, or Cobar,” he said.
The sector on Monday released a new analysis showing that poorer Catholic schools received 54 per cent more funding than those in wealthy areas.
Catholic Education Commission Victoria policy adviser Bruce Phillips said the sector took offence at the claim it was “funnelling” money, suggesting it could “better assess the needs of schools than the Commonwealth does in its model”.
Senator Hanson-Young also questioned why the sector would need to hike fees when it was receiving a funding boost.
“How can you quibble about the fact that overall your sector gets a larger increase in actual money?” she said.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham has said the package represents a $18 billion increase over 10 years, including a funding boost for the Catholic sector, which will be able to redistribute that money in the way it chooses.
But National Catholic Education Commission acting executive director Danielle Cronin said 40 per cent of Catholic schools would “receive less funding than they do under the current Act”.
While the Catholic commission has claimed schools will need to hike fees, a number of individual dioceses such as in Sydney, Brisbane and Newcastle have already said they will be able to absorb the changes.
The Greens, whose Senate votes may determine the fate of Gonski 2.0, took a harder line against the package at the weekend, after previously suggesting they may support it.
