ALP schools policy: 64 questions await answers
The Australian Labor Party released its 2005-2009 policy for all schools in mid-September as part of its election campaign. The policy creates serious concerns for the parents of most students in the independent school sector.
Central to the sector's concerns about the ALP's policy is its promotion of division between schools and the fact that it penalises high levels of parental contribution to schooling. It fails to deliver a reasonable basic entitlement for all students, is overly complex and lacks consistency, clarity and transparency. It is poor public policy.
The ALP policy has created such high levels of confusion and uncertainty within the sector that the Independent Schools Council of Australia (ISCA) has sent a list of 64 initial questions to Labour Shadow Minister of Education Jenny Macklin about how the policy would work. Parents and schools may view these on the Election 2004 page at
www.isca.edu.au
Key points on the ALP policy
-The ALP announced it had reached an agreement with every state and territory government to introduce a new national resource standard to all schools. But no detail has been released about state and territory government funding commitments under this agreement.
-The standard would set recurrent funding for every Australian school at $9,000 (primary) and $12,000 (secondary), to be reached by 2012. These figures are in 2004 prices. Currently, most Australian schools operate below this standard.
-Schools with income from fees and charges above these levels would be limited to a per student basic grant (federal and state government funds combined) of 15 per cent of the standard. Sixty-seven independent schools have been named in this category.
There is no independent school in Australia that be certain about its future public funding under a Labor government - there are simply too many unanswered questions about its schools policy.
-The standard would be indexed at a much lower rate than the Australian Government currently provides.
-Schools below the standard would receive funding indexed to a higher measure -Average Government School Recurrent Costs.
-There would be no additional funds for the non-government sector as a whole.
-There would be a redistribution of $520 million within the non-government sector from some 'high fee' independent schools to some 'needy' schools.
-$378 million of the above $520 million would be redistributed to systemic Catholic schools, leaving $142 million for 'needy' independent schools to be allocated through a range of targeted programmes, but not through general recurrent grants.
-To fund the $520 million redistribution, 164,000 students in 178 independent schools would receive less public funding. Students in these schools already receive the least public recurrent grants.
-The ALP has entered into a 'Community Charter' with Catholic education authorities.
-Federal funding of government schools would increase, with an additional $1.9 billion for a range of targeted programes over the period to 2009. This represents a two per cent increase in the resources available to government schools - or about $4 per week per student.
Thousands of students to lose funding
The ALP named 67 independent schools in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia as already operating above the standard, based on their fess. Funding for the 73,230 students in these schools would be phased down from 2006, so that by 2008 they would receive a per student basis grant from federal and state governments combined of $1,550 (primary) and $2,066 (secondary). These are 2008 price levels, equating to about $1,350 and $1,800 in 2004 terms.
In addition, a further 111 independent schools with 91,170 students across all states and the Australian Capital Territory were named as operating above the standard through income from all sources. These schools would become 'funding guaranteed', whereby their public funding would be frozen until their total income drops to the level of the new standard. This will result in a substantial reduction in the real value of government grants to these schools. The reduction will be about 7-9 per cent per annum.
The policy creates an illogical outcome whereby students in the schools with the lower Soci-Economic Status scores in the above groups will lose more funding.
Lack of transparency about this basis of a school's inclusion on the above lists means that many schools remain uncertain why they are included or excluded.
At least 40 per cent of students in Australia's independent schools sector would lose public funding through the ALP's cuts to 178 schools.
Shortfall on funding principles
In July 2004 ISCA called for the sides of politics to ensure the following principles were underpinned in schools funding legislation:
-stability for families and schools
-basic entitlement for all students
-additional needs-based support.
The ALP's policy introduces fundamental changes and unpredictability to schools funding, creating instability for parents and schools throughout the sector.
Taking an average of $3,000 from each student in Labor's hit list schools will create a financial crisis for thousands of parents in those schools who already struggle to pay fees. This hurts a 'few' to provide negligible gain for others.
While the ALP policy identifies specific areas for targeted support, it fails to provide a reasonable basic entitlement for all students and a clear basis for additional needs-based support on which recurrent funding can be calculated. Its basic grant falls well below ISCA's call for a per student basic entitlement of at least 25 per cent of the total public funding provided to each government student.
Regrettably, the policy discourages parental contribution. Parents who already contribute most through fees will need to pay even more just to maintain the quality of their children's schooling.
Timelines for change under Labor
The ALP has promised to pass the Coalition's schools funding legislation for 2005-2008, which was about to be considered by the Senate when the election was called. Legislation would need to be introduced and passed by the parliament before the end of this year for schools to be funded in 2005.
The ALP says it would treat 2005 as a transition year, prior to introducing its changes for a new schools funding period for 2006-2009.
Authorised by Bill Daniels, Executive Director,
Independent Schools' Council of Australia, 12 Thesiger Court, Deakin, ACT 2600
