How Much Will My School Get? Gonski 2.0 Set to Over-Fund Private Schools

Public schools will remain under-funded.

New data has revealed that private and Catholic schools will be over-funded under the Government's education funding model 'Gonski 2.0'. 

Sydney Morning Herald received the analysis from the Save Our Schools campaign, based on data released under the Freedom of Information Act. It showed that while federal funding of schools would be increased across the board, it will lead to private and Catholic schools being over-funded and public schools remaining under-funded.

It's a stark contrast to Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham's comments from earlier this year when he explained to Sky News that the "the bulk of [funding] is directed to the neediest schools, [so] that there’s clear growth across all of the different schooling systems."

School funding is based on a measurement called the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) which is simple enough to understand: When a school's SRS is at 100 per cent, that means it's properly funded. If it is under 100 per cent, that means it's under-funded. A school with a SRS above 100 per cent is considered over-funded.

With Gonski 2.0, private and Catholic schools will be federally funded to 80 per cent of their SRS. Due to the funding these schools also receive from the states and territories, this means non-public schools will be funded at 107 per cent of their SRS in NSW, 109 per cent in WA and 113 per cent in the ACT after Gonski is fully-implemented. The remaining states and territories' schools will be fully funded or slightly over-funded.

While it is possible the states and territories could cut back on private and Catholic school funding after Gonski is fully implemented, the analysis asserts it's unlikely.

"They are unlikely to risk the ire of private school organisations by cutting back their funding," the report reads.

The tragedy of it all is that public schools, who were supposed to benefit the most from Gonski, will remain under-funded after full implementation.

By 2023, Gonski will increase the funding of public schools in each state to 20 per cent of their SRS. State and territory governments will need to fund the remainder of each public schools' SRS, but as of 2017, they fall short.

NSW funds 71 per cent of their SRS, Victoria is at 66 per cent, Queensland is at 73 per cent, South Australia is at 72 per cent, Tasmania is at 76 per cent and Northern Territory is at 67 per cent. The ACT and WA are adequately funded at 97 and 86 per cent, respectively.

This means that even after 2023, many public schools will continue to remain under-funded, while their private and Catholic counterparts are over-funded.

There are 143 over-funded private or Catholic schools operating this year under Gonski 2.0, with that figure expected to rise to 257 by next year and 531 (or 66 per cent) by 2027.

Let's hope someone realises these numbers aren't quite working out the way they're supposed to and does something to rectify it.

We can only hope.

Photo: iStock.com/GlobalStock