MEMBER for Mallee Andrew Broad has criticised the Wimmera Catholic schools who have enlisted parents to oppose a new federal funding model.
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The federal government introduced the package, nicknamed ‘Gonski 2.0’ after the previous Labor government’s education reforms, as part of the 2017-18 Commonwealth budget.
The Department of education has estimated how much money it will distribute to schools in 2017, 2018 and 2027 using measures of social disadvantage.
The full funding estimate can be found online at the Department of Education website.
Private, independent and Catholic schools are significantly more dependent on federal money than public schools.
St Brigid’s College Horsham Principal Peter Gutteridge, Nhill St Patrick’s School principal Kathryn Bendall and Stawell St Patrick’s Primary School director of Catholic education Audrey Brown all used their newsletters to speak out against ‘Gonski 2.0’.
Mr Gutteridge stated that school fees would eventually have to rise under a system that eliminated special deals for non-government schools.
“This is where the voice of those in the St Brigid’s College and other Catholic school communities becomes vital,” he stated.
“In coming weeks, please keep an eye out for information about how you can add your voice to help prevent unreasonable fee increases. We need to step up.”
Mr Broad said said he could not understand the move as the schools in question would get more money under the new model.
“Every one of those three schools that is complaining has no reason to complain; they’re better off,” he said..
“They’re in the better quadrant out of the 119 schools across the Mallee electorate.”
Mr Broad said Wimmera Catholic schools should speak to their governing bodies instead.
“The Catholic education system has not been transparent in the administration of their funds, money has been going into their administration rather than the students,” he said.
“What we do here in this reform is list what each school will get so we know for sure that the money is going to get there and each Catholic school in the electorate of Mallee is better off.”
The new system would allocate federal money on a per-student basis that would be modified by a social disadvantage test.
The government released a report this month that claimed Catholic authorities had been moving federal funds from poorer schools to wealthier urban ones.
The legislation to enable the new funding model passed a vote in the House of Representatives on Monday night and will head to the Senate.
The Coalition does not enjoy a majority of seats in the Senate and some other key reforms have stalled in that chamber.
Labor has opposed the deal, with education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek claiming it would deliver $22 billion less than the Gillard government’s model.
Mr Broad said Catholic schools should accept the new deal.
“If they want to complain then I guess we could take the money away and put more into public education,” he said.
“There would be a lot of people who would be supportive of that.”