Western Australia has become the first state to officially sign on to go full Gonski.
On Tuesday, the WA and Australian governments inked a deal to fully fund public schools by 2026 – making official a deal that was struck in January.
When the Gonski review was released more than a decade ago, it was seen as a remedy to reverse the ever-widening funding gap and needs-fulfilment between public and private schools.
The review included a complex calculation called the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) which could be used to estimate how much public funding each school required to meet its students’ educational needs.
And yet, an entire cohort of school kids will have progressed from kindy to high school graduation without seeing it fully implemented.
Despite successive governments making overtures and slight headway towards meeting the shortfall, there is still a five percent funding gap between public schools and private schools – many of which have already more-than-achieved their funding targets.
So, Tuesday’s photo op where the prime minister, the premier, and the two education ministers put their names to the deal, was more than just symbolic – it heralded an historic moment for the nation.
Under the agreement, the Australian government will invest an estimated additional $785.4 million from 2025 to 2029 in Western Australian public schools.
This brings its share to 22.5 percent, breaking the Turnbull government’s 20 percent cap.
The Western Australian government will invest at least an equivalent amount over this period, increasing its funding share to at least 77.5 per cent of the SRS by 2026.
“We are so happy to be getting this done for the people of Western Australia,” State Education Minister Tony Buti said.
“This funding will focus on improving equity and excellence in schools, supporting the wellbeing of students and teachers, and providing a strong and sustainable workforce of teachers and non-teaching school staff.
“We are currently delivering record levels of reform and investment into public education, which is working to help ensure all students and their families have access to a great education.”
But public education advocacy group Save Our Schools said WA public schools are being ‘defrauded’ by this new funding agreement.
SOS National Convenor Trevor Cobbold said it was a ‘positive’ that the state government was ‘clawing back’ the cuts it had made over the past five years.
“It cut its funding share from 84.4 percent of their SRS in 2018 to 75 percent in 2024,” he said.
But he pointed out loopholes in the new funding agreement which meant the state government could claim certain expenditures like “school transport, capital depreciation and kindergarten up to four percent of the SRS of public schools”.
“This trick will defraud public schools of about $1.61 billion in funding over the next five years,” he said.
“Second, the agreement allows the WA Government to also claim expenditures on the School Curriculum and Standards Authority and Department of Education’s regulatory functions as part of its SRS share.
“Public schools will lose about $240 million from this trick over the next five years.”
