Five per cent short. A decade late.

The money

Gonski stressed the need for an equitable school funding model that would ensure differences in educational outcomes are not the result of differences in wealth, income, power or possessions. The Gonski Review Panel said:

The needs of priority equity cohorts, including First Nations students; students living in regional, rural and remote locations; students with disability; and students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, must be urgently addressed The quasi market-based nature of the Australian education system leads to limited socioeducational diversity in some schools and entrenches disadvantage for many students.

— Gonski Review Panel

Private schools receive both government funding and unlimited fees, philanthropy and tax-deductible donations. The Australian Productivity Commission overview, p.15 recommended abolition of DGR for this purpose on the grounds that it was inequitable. The Gonski Review called for five areas of reform but more than 10 years on, there is still a shortfall in the Schooling Resource Standard with the states funding public schools at 75 percent of the SRS and the Commonwealth 20 percent with the five percent remainder the subject of ongoing negotiations.

The segregation Australia now has one of the most segregated schooling systems in the OECD, thanks to the growing concentration of disadvantaged students in disadvantaged schools. Our position is worsening at the second-fastest rate.

How Australia shaped Trump’s education policy.

— Jane Caro, novelist, writer and social commentator, The Saturday Paper

Choice, competition between schools, and big increases in funding by the Howard Government fostered a significant increase in the growth of non-government schools and with it, greater segregation. In 2024 enrolments in independent and faith-based schools reached 36%, an increase of 3-4% each year for the last three years. For secondary schools, it is 41%. Australia has one of the highest proportions of students in non-government schools in the OECD.

The sector also became highly segregated by ethnicity, religion and class. The OECD argues reducing school segregation is one of the best ways to reduce achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students and improve educational effectiveness more generally. Previous research linked school segregation with other inequalities. For instance, schools that mainly serve disadvantaged students can struggle to attract and retain experienced teachers.

In Australia, non-government schools receive government funding without regulation of how much they can charge or how they enrol students. This is unusual in world terms. In most OECD countries, if private schools receive government funds they must not charge any tuition fees. While better funding for disadvantaged students is essential, the government appears to have baulked at measures that might de-segregate the school system.

The Government-commissioned Review of Policy Interventions to Increase Socio-economic Diversity and Improve Learning Outcomes 2023 suggests targeted removal of fees or fee capping could be effective, amongst other interventions.

The more discretion and autonomy that schools have, the stronger the central regulatory frameworks must be; Australia has the balance wrong.

— Andreas Schleicher, OECD Education Director

Figure 2 | Policy interventions examined in this review it is important to note that where other policy interventions have succeeded in increasing diversity and achievement such as financial incentives in England and Wales or alternative modes of delivery in New Zealand this has occurred within a context where fees have been removed as a factor in segregation. In Australia, fee removal may similarly be most effective if deployed in concert with other policy interventions, p. 15

Parents in the Netherlands have created approximately 90 parent groups that use school choice as an effective means to desegregate schools and provide a quality education for all.

— OECD 2019 PISA Results: Balancing Choice and Equity

Teachers

We must invest and trust in teachers, find ways to lift their esteem, build professional capacity, and have them teach in equitable, well-resourced schools. Australia’s universities graduate around 16,000 new teachers/year but at least 4,000 extra teachers will be needed for the growth of school students. Worsening the problem is the decline in the number of people who want to train as teachers and more teachers leaving the profession early.

In November the NSW Department of Education reported 10,000 classes per day not being adequately staffed due to shortages.

Teachers do the most important job in the world and the truth is we don’t have enough of them.

— Minister, the Hon Jason Clare MP

In the 2024 State of Our Schools survey, 19% of principals said they didn’t have enough classrooms at their schools, 40% said they wouldn’t have sufficient space to meet enrolments in the next three to five years, 83% of principals reported teacher shortages at their school and 93% said it had become harder to fill vacant positions. Despite the dedication and efforts of teachers, these demands are taking a toll on the workforce and undermining the sector’s ability to attract and retain teachers. Many teachers do not feel adequately recognised or valued. Violence and bullying by students and parents may be another factor.

First Nations

Far too many First Nations students are not reaching their full learning potential. To better support these students, there should be a First Nations-led approach to developing a First Nations Education Policy.

Young parents

In 2021 there were 4,769 babies born to teenagers of school age. Of almost 700 secondary schools in Australia only 23 provide formal education and support to enable young mothers to complete their secondary education. Data is not collected on the number of parenting students in schools however, a rough calculation suggests it is less than 5% of all young mothers.

The purpose-built secondary college CC Cares is one of the exemplars providing expert teaching, flexible learning programs, childcare, transport, parenting skills, mental health and other supports currently provided for 140 young mothers in the ACT and Queanbeyan.

Nation-wide, governments declare that young people are entitled, indeed required to be in education but do not make it possible when there are so few school services for this vulnerable group.