At the end of last Term, the government announced changes to school funding.  Below is a  summary of this announcement outlining that Catholic education supports the Morrison government’s changes.  These changes  recognise the needs of families in Catholic schools and goes some way to ensuring parents in the Archdiocese can continue to choose an affordable Catholic education for their children.

The needs of families who choose a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn have been recognised by changes to school funding announced by the Morrison Government.
Catholic Education Director Ross Fox welcomed the announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Education Minister Dan Tehan to provide additional funding to the 14,000 students in the 29 Catholic schools across the ACT and NSW.
“I thank Minister Tehan and Prime Minister Morrison for listening to the concerns of Catholic educators, for understanding the impact the old model would have in driving up fees and for acting to ensure Catholic schools can remain affordable for families,” Mr Fox said.
“I note the particular advocacy in the Coalition Government of Senator Zed Seselja for fair funding for nongovernment schools in the ACT.
“The funding arrangements announced last year by the Turnbull Government threatened the future of Catholic schools, in particular in the ACT and regional areas. This additional needs-based funding will assist Catholic schools to remain affordable for families.
“Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn will need continuing access to the choice and affordability fund announced by the Government to ensure families have a real choice of affordable nongovernment schools. Decisions on the allocation of these funds are yet to be made.
“I welcome the commitment that the share of these funds to Catholic schools will support the diverse needs of Canberra communities.
“Importantly, the government has committed to a review of the funding arrangements that will examine the fee expectations in all non-government schools to ensure affordable choice. This will also be an important initiative to meet the needs of students at Catholic schools in the Archdiocese and we look forward to collaborating with government to ensure an equitable outcome for our families.
“More accurate measures of need will deliver additional funding and close some of the funding gap facing our Catholic schools compared to the funding policy announced last year.
“This announcement addresses flaws in the way the funding model identifies the needs of Catholic school parents. 

Summary of the package of new measures

The flawed socio-economic status (SES) methodology that mischaracterised the needs of ACT Catholic schools will be phased out as a determinant of funding. Commonwealth funding for non-government schools will instead be linked to matched parental income data beginning from 2020. The new private income tax (PIT) measure of SES will use government data collections to base school characteristics on the actual families in schools rather than the suburbs in which they live.

Over the next ten years:

• An additional $3.2 billion will be allocated to non-government schools identified as needing the most help from 2020 to 2029. (including an additional $220 million for Catholic schools in the ACT and $1.1 billion for Catholic schools in NSW)
• An additional $170.8 million will be provided to non-government schools in 2019 to give funding certainty.
• A further $1.2 billion will be provided in the form of a school choice and accessibility fund. This fund will assist Catholic schools address affordability for families.

Equitable access to this school choice and accessibility fund will be critical to ensuring that the unique challenges facing Catholic schools in the ACT can be addressed. Decisions on access to this fund are yet to be made. It will be important in coming days and weeks to ensure distribution of this fund adequately considers the diverse and unique needs of ACT Catholic schools in order to keep downward pressure on fees.

Unfortunately, the changes are being incorrectly reported in the media as an increase in funding for non-government schools at the expense of the public education system. These changes simply provide a partial reversal to the funding cuts introduced by the Turnbull government in 2017.  The public education system is not impacted by these changes because they were not adversely impacted under the model changes and continue to enjoy per student increases per year in excess of 6%. Government schools are fully funded by government and the incomes of government school parents are not assessed for funding purposes.

The government has committed to a review of the funding arrangements that will examine the fee expectations in all non-government schools to ensure affordable choice. This will be important in the long term to meet the needs of students at Catholic schools in the Archdiocese and CE will continue to work with government to ensure an equitable outcome.