Statement 1: Budget Overview (Continued)
Schools reform
The Budget provides $9.8 billion over six years from 2014‑15 for new needs‑based school funding arrangements, and a new National Plan for School Improvement. This historic investment in Australia's schools will be central to Australia's future prosperity by lifting our productivity through investing in our most important resource, our people. Making sure we have world‑class education is a central part of the Government's strategy for economic success. Improving our schooling outcomes will be vital for helping Australia seize the opportunities on offer in the Asian century.
The Government is introducing once‑in‑a‑generation reforms of Australian school funding arrangements, delivering greater consistency in the distribution of funding, providing more support for disadvantaged students, and helping drive improvement at the student, school and national levels.
The Commonwealth's funding offer will remain open until 30 June 2013, to ensure schools have certainty around their 2014 funding levels well before the school year begins. Negotiations with states are ongoing, and the final outcome of these negotiations will be announced in the coming months.
A more equitable and consistent funding model
The Commonwealth's new Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) directs funding to those schools and students most in need. The SRS provides a base amount for every student, supplemented by additional funding for: schools in regional and remote areas; small schools; students from a low‑socioeconomic status background; Indigenous students; and students with low English‑language proficiency.
For the first time, government and non‑government schools will be funded through a consistent formula. Families choosing non‑government schools will continue to contribute to the base per‑student amount through fees, but all additional funding for disadvantage will be fully publicly funded, regardless of which sector a school belongs to.
The Government is also providing $100 million to extend the More Support for Students with Disabilities National Partnership for one year, with support for students with disability to be built in to the new funding model from 2015. A further $14.4 million will support ongoing work on consistent definitions of and data collection to inform the new loading.
These new arrangements will be phased in over six years, with the Commonwealth providing 65 per cent of the additional investment required, and the states providing the remaining 35 per cent.
National Plan for School Improvement
While Australia's overall results in reading, maths and science are well above the OECD average, our results have declined over the last decade, and several countries in our region have overtaken us in the international rankings. There is also a persistent and significant gap between our highest and lowest performing students — and these low‑performing students are disproportionately from disadvantaged backgrounds.
To drive improvements in student outcomes across the board, the Government is working with the States to finalise and agree the National Plan for School Improvement, including five key reform directions: quality teaching, quality learning, empowered school leadership, meeting student need, and transparency and accountability.
The Government is providing a further $64.7 million over five years to support the implementation of the education reforms proposed under the National Plan for School Improvement. This funding will provide the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership and Education Services Australia with new funding to develop and deliver important parts of the National Plan for School Improvement.
The Government is committed to ensuring every child has the opportunity to achieve excellent education outcomes. The reforms proposed under the National Plan for School Improvement, supported by a new and more equitable funding system, will help deliver on this commitment.
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