Daniel Hurst political correspondent
theguardian.com, Wednesday 4 December 2013
Document outlines response to prickly questions that may arise when government finds extra $1.2bn for school funding
Education minister Christopher Pyne finds himself at the centre of a storm over his Gonski backflip. AAP image for The Guardian/Alan Porritt
The education minister, Christopher Pyne, was anticipating his school funding announcement on Monday would be interpreted as a “giant backflip”.
Indeed, it was the second suggestion on a question-and-answer sheet produced by the government and provided to state and territory governments to help it explain its new position.
The three-page document, obtained by Guardian Australia, outlines the official response to a range of prickly questions that may arise from the announcement the government had found an extra $1.2bn for school funding and would substantially retain the David Gonski-inspired model over the next four years.
It came a week after Pyne declared the reforms were “unimplementable” and would be replaced by a yet-to-be-devised new model in 2015, triggering criticism from the five state and territory governments that had already reached six-year agreements with the commonwealth. Last week he flagged only $230m extra for the three hold-out jurisdictions next year.
The second question on the government sheet says: “Isn’t this a giant backflip?”
The answer asserts: “No. The Coalition committed to matching Labor’s school funding over the next four years and today’s announcement ensures we are not only keeping that commitment, but investing more than Labor in schools.”
The sheet says Labor failed to deliver a national school funding model because Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory did not sign up before the election. It says the new government has now reached in-principle agreement with those jurisdictions, and points to the reinstatement of $1.2bn cut from the four-year budget before the election because of the absence of deals. The end result is a restoration of a total $2.8bn commitment nationally over the four-year budget cycle.
Later, in the same document, the question is posed: “Didn’t you call the Labor model unworkable and not fit for implementation?”
The official response hinges on the assertion the government had since obtained national support for the funding model and was cleaning up Labor’s negotiating “mess”.
“We will remove the red tape and command and control features that characterised Labor’s model and treat the states and territories like adult governments who operate and own government schools,” it says.
Critics warn the reduction in restrictions will free state and territory governments to cut their own contribution to school funding, or not index their budgets to the extent required under deals with Labor, potentially undermining the aims.
In a reference to the government’s election commitment to ensure no school was a dollar worse off over the next four years, the document raises the question: “Can you guarantee that schools won’t be worse off under the Coalition?”
It says the decision to match originally earmarked federal funding over the next four years means “no school will be worse off because of anything the commonwealth does” but acknowledges state decisions could create winners and losers.
“Final amounts for government schools will be determined by the states and territories, as each jurisdiction has a different application of the model,” the document says.
It also acknowledges year five and six of existing agreements will not be honoured, but the Coalition made clear before the election its pledges to match funding applied only to the four-year budget cycle. NSW, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and South Australia will get the same federal funding agreed to over four years while Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory will receive the same offered by Labor even though they had not signed up to the National Education Reform Agreement.
The Abbott government will need to formalise new agreements with these three jurisdictions “and they will not be conditional on signing up to a deal which reduces their authority over schools or creates unnecessary red tape”.
Labor and the Greens say the latest announcements raise more questions than they answer, leaving the future of “meaningful” lasting education reform based on student needs far from certain. The government document says the commonwealth will have to work with the states and the territories to develop “a fair and sustainable approach to school funding beyond 2017”.
