States told to put up more for schools

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 14 April 2013 | 11.25

THE states have been told to stump up an extra $5.1 billion over six years for schools funding, under a federal government plan to improve the national education system.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a total of $14.5 billion would be pumped into the sector from next year, with the commonwealth providing the bulk or 65 per cent.

"It's a lot of money, but I believe it is a wise investment in our children's future and our nation's future," she told reporters in Canberra on Sunday.

"For every one dollar they (the states) are prepared to put in to get there, I am prepared to put in two dollars."

The National Plan for School Improvement reforms build on the Gonski schools funding review released a year ago.

While $14.5 billion over six years falls short of the $6.5 billion a year recommended by the review, Labor says education investment will increase if proposed yearly indexation rates are agreed to.

It wants the states and territories to increase their education budgets by a minimum three per cent annually. If they do, the commonwealth will index its yearly funding by 4.7 per cent.

The states are also being asked to stop education cuts and funding freezes, spread funds fairly and sign a new National Education Reform Agreement.

Ms Gillard warns if the schools funding model isn't addressed, the sector will be $5.4 billion worse off because of a widening gap between spending commitments by the states and the commonwealth.

State leaders are heading to Canberra on Friday for the Council of Australian Governments meeting where the education funding issue will be thrashed out.

If agreement isn't reached, Ms Gillard says the states will be left to fight among themselves for the limited resources available.

So far Western Australia and Queensland have been sceptical about the federal government's plans despite drawn-out, high-level negotiations with officials and schools education minister Peter Garrett.

But if Labor succeeds, Ms Gillard says there will be extra money per student and loadings for schools with disadvantaged pupils, including indigenous children or those with disabilities.

Under the school resource standard, the proposed per student amount for 2014 is $9,271 for primary school pupils and $12,193 for secondary students.

The big winners will be government schools, which will share $12 billion, while Catholic schools will share $1.4 billion and independent schools $1 billion.

"Today's announcement is about distributing funding according to need, distributing to disadvantage," Australian Education Union (AEU) federal president Angelo Gavrielatos said.

Every school will have to have a transparent school improvement plan to ensure it is trying to reach national education benchmarks on numeracy and literacy.

Labor wants Australia's education system to be ranked in the world's top five for reading, mathematics and science by 2025.

"For me, it was education and getting every child a great education that brought me into politics, as a moral cause," Ms Gillard said.

"We cannot have the strong economy that we want tomorrow unless we have the best of education in our schools today."


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