Legislation to increase school funding passes the House of Representatives

The Albanese Government has today passed legislation through the House of Representatives to increase funding for public schools. 

This legislation is all about enabling governments to fully fund our public schools and tie that funding to reforms to help students catch up, keep up and finish school.

Over the last eight years the percentage of students finishing high school has dropped, from 83 per cent to 73 per cent in public schools.

We need to turn this around and that’s what this legislation is about.

At the moment, non-government schools are funded at the Schooling Resource Standard, or they are on track to get there, or they are above it and coming back down to it. Most public schools aren’t.

The Commonwealth Government provides 80 per cent of the SRS funding for non-government schools and the State and Territory Governments provide the other 20 per cent.

For public schools it’s the reverse. The Commonwealth provides 20 per cent of the SRS funding, and the States and Territories are supposed to provide at least another 75 per cent. That means there is a five per cent gap.

The Albanese Government has put $16 billion of additional investment for public schools on the table to help fill that gap.

If delivered, this would represent the biggest extra investment in public education by the Australian Government in this country’s history.

The Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024 amends the Australian Education Act 2013 (the Act) and enables the Commonwealth to lift its share of funding to public schools above 20 per cent.

The legislation removes the funding ceiling that stops the Commonwealth providing more than 20 per cent of funding to public schools and turns that into a funding floor.

This means the 20 per cent will become the minimum, not the maximum, the Commonwealth contributes to public schools.

It will allow the Albanese Government to increase its share of funding for public schools and deliver on the agreements it has struck to date with the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania, and any other jurisdictions that sign on to the public-school funding offer in the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA).

The BFSA is a 10-year agreement that ties new funding to practical reforms to help lift student outcomes, sets targets and improves school funding transparency.

Greater funding certainty will be provided to jurisdictions and public schools by:

• Setting a minimum ‘funding floor’ for Commonwealth funding contributions to public schools at 20 per cent from 2025, and 40 per cent for the Northern Territory from 2029.
• Locking in Commonwealth funding for public schools so it cannot go backwards.
• Increase transparency and accountability of how school funding is being spent.
• Requiring the Minister to report each year to Parliament on the progress of national school education reform.

This legislation will enable additional funding to flow to the states and territories who have signed up to the BFSA. The legislation will now move to the Senate for debate.

The Albanese Government will continue to work with the remaining states and territories to fully fund government schools across Australia.

If a state or territory does not sign on to the Government’s public school funding offer, the current funding arrangements will continue for another 12 months.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Education Jason Clare:

“At the moment, the maximum the Commonwealth Government can provide to public schools is 20 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard.

“This Bill turns that maximum into a minimum. It turns that ceiling into a floor.

“It enables the Commonwealth government to ratchet up funding for public schools.

“This important legislation allows the Albanese Government to deliver more funding to public schools and tie that funding to practical reforms to help students catch up, keep up and finish school.”