Coalition backbench MPs, let by Tony Abbott, are reportedly livid at the Turnbull Government’s revamped $18.6 billion “Gonski 2.0” needs-based school funding plan because it promises to cut funding to 24 elite non-government schools. From The Australian:
Liberals and Nationals broke ranks yesterday to vent their anger… some schools will lose money, leading MPs to fear any Mark Latham-style hit list will lead to an electoral backlash.
Funding for 24 elite private and Catholic schools will go backwards, while 353 schools will get a lower share and 9000 mostly government schools will receive more as the government seeks to level the playing field for all schools, regardless of sector, over a decade…
“I just know that it’s been almost an article of faith in our party since the time of Menzies that we were the party that promoted parental choice in education,” the former prime minister told Sydney radio station 2GB…
One Liberal MP said if “this isn’t fixed and soon”, there would be a partyroom showdown next week. “I have no idea what they are thinking … I can’t believe it,” the MP said.
Another Liberal said the education funding package was “absolutely outrageous” and declared more voters would “abandon” the party, as they urged Mr Turnbull and the Education Minister to reconsider the changes.
“How many times can we attack our own people? We whack them on super, on pensions, we whack them with income tax increases and now we want to whack our aspirationals who want to send their kids to school,” the MP said.
“More of our people will abandon us…
The data, however, shows that private schools are guzzling taxpayer funding, meaning they are effectively morphing into public schools because of the large amount of taxpayer funding they receive. This was illustrated clearly in last year’s report, entitled Uneven Playing Field: The State of Australia’s Schools, which projected that under current policy settings, non-government school students are on track to receive much more in taxpayer funding than average public school students by 2020:
Federal funding to private schools increased massively during the Howard Government’s reign, rising by $1,584 for each private school student between 1999 and 2005, versus an increase of just $261 per public school student.
An analysis published in The SMH last year also found that more than 150 private schools across Australia are over funded by around $215 million a year based on the Gonski resource standard.
Research has also shown that many private schools use taxpayer funding to improve their facilities rather than reduce fees.
I don’t know about you, but giving substantial taxpayer funding to already well-resourced and affluent schools doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and seems highly inequitable.
Heck, even the head of the Abbott Government’s Audit Commission, Tony Shepard, sees the value of Gonski 2.0, penning the following today in The AFR:
The government is encouraging Gonski 2.0 to take the honest path and recognise that there will be winners and losers. Well-funded schools will be asked to carry the burden for schools that need more. Support for our public education system that has delivered so much to Australia is paramount.
It’s a shame that Coalition backbenchers like Tony Abbott cannot see this, just as he couldn’t see the inequities in the superannuation and pension systems when he was Prime Minister, leading him to oppose sensible reform.
