AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe says the choice is between Labor’s vision for fully funded public schools where teachers and students have the support they need or a Dutton government that plans to tell teachers what to teach and how to teach it and deny them the support and resources they need. Peter Dutton claims “ideologically driven advocates” have too much influence over what is taught.
“Kids are being indoctrinated from preschool where all sorts of woke agendas are part of the curriculum … it then progresses … all the way through to high school. And there are a lot of teachers there who are masquerading as teachers, but who are really either climate zealots or other social issues that they’re obsessed with,” he says.
By contrast, Minister for Education Jason Clare celebrates the work of teachers, telling Parliament:
“Everything they do helps our kids to aim higher, to work harder, to be braver and to believe in themselves.”
Prime minister Anthony Albanese too has praised teachers and educators, saying: “Hardworking, dedicated educators who have slogged hard through the terms, through the years, all of them working to make sure that holding open the doors of opportunity is not a lofty ideal, but a lived reality – and an Australian tradition.”
He describes public schools as an essential part of the fabric of Australia and recognises that “education is the single most powerful weapon we have against disadvantage. And it’s the single best investment we can make in our nation’s future”.
LABOR’S GROUNDBREAKING PLEDGE
In January, the prime minister made a landmark commitment to deliver full funding of public schools.
In agreements struck with Victoria and South Australia, he guaranteed to lift the federal share of public school funding from 20 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to 25 per cent.
The SRS is the minimum level of funding schools require to meet the needs of all students.
State and territory governments are required to fund the remaining 75 per cent of the SRS and remove clauses in previous agreements that allow them to count non school costs of $2 billion a year as part of their share of funding.
With NSW signing on in March, the federal government is aiming to finalise agreements with every state and territory to deliver full funding to the minimum standard of 100 per cent of the SRS by 2034.
Haythorpe says full funding will mean guaranteed funding increases for schools over the next decade, allowing for the employment of additional teachers, more small group and individual support for struggling students and more support for teachers inside the classroom via additional education support workers.
It will also mean more specialist support in schools such as counsellors and speech pathologists.
“We’ve been campaigning for more than a decade for schools to be funded to 100 per cent of the SRS, which was the original recommendation of the Gonski review in 2011,” says Haythorpe. “The Albanese government’s commitment is testament to the efforts of teachers, principals, support staff and community members who have worked tirelessly to deliver it.”
The government has also made serious inroads in addressing the teacher shortage crisis, announcing teaching scholarships of up to $40,000 to new undergraduates and payments to teaching students during their practicums, in addition to tuition-free teaching degrees and HELP debt reduction.
COALITION CONSERVATIVE AGENDA TROUBLING
The Coalition has never expressed support for the full funding of public schools. It has not responded to requests for clarification on its position before this edition of Australian Educator was finalised.
“You can’t trust the Coalition on school funding,” says Haythorpe.
“The last time they were in government, they promised to honour school funding agreements but then ripped them up and cut $14 billion from public schools in 2017,” she says.
“Scott Morrison struck agreements with state and territory governments in 2018 that saw only 1.3 per cent of public schools fully funded by 2023. By contrast 98 per cent of private schools were funded at or above the SRS.”
New official data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority highlights the disparity between public and private school funding. Private schools are receiving 27 per cent more recurrent income from all sources per student than public schools.
The capital expenditure gap is also increasing. In 2023, it was 2.1 times more than public schools, up from 1.5 times more in 2021.
STARK DIFFERENCES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
The major parties’ ideas about teaching and learning are also diametrically opposed.
Dutton has consistently attacked teachers, questioning their professionalism and claiming children are being indoctrinated in schools.
The Coalition’s plan for schools includes overhauling the national curriculum, mandating explicit/direct instruction in every classroom and introducing a behaviour curriculum for students.
The Albanese government’s schools funding plans are tied to reforms including a Year 1 phonics and numeracy check to identify students who need extra help, wellbeing programs including access to mental health professionals in schools, high-quality and evidence-based professional learning and new initiatives to improve the attraction and retention of teachers.
GREENS CALL FOR MORE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING
The Greens have called for full funding to 100 per cent of the SRS for public schools by July this year. Their election commitments also include a capital fund for public schools and additional funding of $2.4 billion for public schools so fees can be abolished. Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt says governments are underfunding public schools and shifting the costs onto parents.
