The new school funding model proposed in the Gonski report will give low-fee schools, often sited in low-to-middle-income areas, a welcome boost. Gonki’s needs-based funding model suits the low-fee Christian schools sector.

Muswellbrook Christian School, a member of Christian Schools Australia.

“The Gonski approach is very much in line with what Christian Schools Australia (CSA) has been advocating since our inception 11 years ago”, CSA CEO Stephen O’Doherty told Eternity.

“It is based on some principles that we strongly believe in. It is fair and equitable, it bases funding on need—including educational and socio-economic need—and it puts all sectors on the same footing. The basis on which funding is calculated will be the same for government and non -government schools. While non-government schools will still of course receive less base funding than government schools, based on the relative need of the community they serve, there will be a common approach to how the base rate is calculated across all sectors. This is new, and welcome.”

The Howard Government SES (socio-economic status) model had some features that increased inequity for some schools. The ‘funding maintenance’ and ‘funding guarantee’ provisions of the current model have created distortions that have tended to disadvantage lower fee independent schools. The inclusion of the Catholic system in the SES system, only made this gap more apparent for the low fee independents.

“The Gonski model removes the need for funding maintenance and restores equity—that is, providing governments adequately fund it”, says O’Doherty. “In fact, whoever is in government will need to deal with this issue, and the Coalition has given us an undertaking it will have a plan to do so within 2 years if it wins in September.”

Gonski contains another major breakthrough for low-fee Christian schools. For the first time, funding for students with a disability will follow the child. At present, students with a disability in Government schools get a far higher level of support funding than those in non-Government schools. Gonski applies loadings for children with a disability according to need rather than the sort of school they attend. This will remove a major barrier to Christian schools serving students with a disability.

“As well as more funding in the ‘loadings’ category, modelling to date shows the majority of CSA schools also receiving a boost to their base funding under the Gillard plan,” O’Doherty reports. “This is because our schools tend to be located in low to middle income areas, serving families who, quite frankly, struggle to pay even the relatively low fee structures of Christian schools. They do so because the passionately believe Christian education is right for their family.”

This week (27 – 28th May) the Christian Schools National Policy Forum will be held in Canberra. Christian schools will be seeking answers from both sides of politics. School funding is very complex and CSA believes it will be necessary to go through a plan for each school to make sure none are disadvantaged, both in the transition to a new system as well as the final funding model.

Despite there being lots at stake, O’Doherty is not impressed with the way our political system is dealing with the question of education funding.

“The debate in recent days, since the budget, has been unedifying. That’s partly because it is inherently complex, but mostly because we are now very much in pre-election mode and, like so much that has happened in the last three years, there’s a lot of heat and not much light in the public debate. Making the issues even harder to explain is the reality that as state governments cut money to schools—particularly NSW and Qld—all schools in every sector are being affected by the flow-on effect. If nothing changed, money for schooling will be tighter in the next 2-3 years. This is tending to distort the discussion about the new model, which itself will phased in over six years.”

The verdict: “Despite the nervousness around implementation, and the complexity of the new system, we still believe that the Gillard reforms should be supported by all states, and implemented”, says O’Doherty.

“It is a fairer system. It achieves greater equity for those who need it.

“It is based on a model that measures educational and social need, and provides funding in a way that should address that need.

“Most importantly it ensures that funding for students with disability and other forms of disadvantage is applied equally irrespective of the child’s school or sector. We have been asking for this for a very long time.

“Most if not all schools in our organisation will, over time, gain access to more funding than is currently available. Some, we already know, will receive significant boosts.”