Daniel Hurst theguardian.com, Saturday 30 November 2013

Funding windfall for private schools at the expense of public system would reignite hostilities, peak body warns

Federal education minister Christopher Pyne faced heated criticism from his state counterparts at a meeting on Friday. Photograph: Nikki Short/AAP Image

A peak body for independent schools says they do not want a federal funding windfall at the expense of the public system, pleading against reviving past “wars” between education sectors.

The declaration from the Association of Independent Schools of NSW comes after several state education ministers voiced fears public schools would lose out under the Abbott government’s decision to rewrite the David Gonski-inspired funding reforms next year.

The federal education minister, Christopher Pyne, who faced criticism from Liberal, Labor, Nationals and Greens counterparts at a “very heated” meeting in Sydney on Friday, did not rule out changing the funding share between sectors but cautioned that “no one should assume that they would get less money”.

The opposition education spokeswoman, Kate Ellis, said the prospect of public school funding cuts would revive a divisive debate pitting parent against parent, school against school and state against state.

But the Association of Independent Schools of NSW’s executive director, Geoff Newcombe, said his sector was not looking for a greater federal funding share at the expense of public schools.

“Our board has made it clear that the independent schools do not want the share between the sectors to change and we don’t want more money for independent schools at the expense of government schools,” he told Guardian Australia.

The majority of extra funding allocated under Labor’s Gonski reforms was set to go to the public school sector. Newcombe said this was because the majority of people from disadvantaged backgrounds attended state schools.

While the non-government sector always wanted an increase in funding, it did not want it if it was at the expense of the public system, because it wished to avoid a resumption in hostilities between school sectors, Newcombe said.

“We don’t want to return back to where there’s a rivalry between the sectors, even at the teacher level, going to courses and so on, and that has happened in the past,” he said.

Despite not wanting an increase in the total non-government funding share, the Association of Independent Schools of NSW backed the review of how the model affected individual schools, arguing the Gonski-inspired system was a volatile “mess”.

The body also supported pleas by state governments for the commonwealth to maintain the six-year funding totals promised under deals struck with NSW and other states before the September election.

The NSW Coalition education minister, Adrian Piccoli, said ministers at Friday’s meeting were told that existing federal legislation locked in funding for the non-government school sector, raising the prospect of state schools losing out.

“Public schools overwhelmingly school disadvantaged students and if you took money away from public schools, I just can’t bear the thought of that,” Piccoli told the ABC on Friday night.

Arguing the Gonski deal had settled past disputes between school sectors, Piccoli said: “The war is over and unfortunately this week it’s been reignited. It’s taken 20 years to solve it [but] we’ve had six months of peace.”

Independent Schools Victoria supported a rethink of the funding model, while the National Catholic Education Commission said it expected the government to stick with its pledge to match Labor’s funding over four years.

The Australian Education Union argued any reduction in public school funding would betray the public.

Gonski row: independent schools don’t want a war with public system | World news | theguardian.com