The Independent Education Union, representing staff in the ACT's 50 Catholic and independent schools, has called on all political parties to commit to an overhaul of school funding in the lead up to the October election.
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IEU NSW/ACT Secretary John Quessy said one of the union's main concerns was that students with disabilities not be anymore disadvantaged if they chose to attend non-government schools.
"All parties acknowledge the rights of parents to choose the school their child attends but to deliver this for students with disabilities, we need funding that is consistent and sector blind," Mr Quessy said.
"It is important that the most vulnerable are not disadvantaged."
Mr Quessy said the union fully supported the recommendations made in the independent review sparked by the autism cage scandal but said it was becoming harder for non-government schools to implement them under current funding models.
"The Shaddock review made a lot of incredibly sensible recommendations and the government adopted them all," he said.
"They then expected the non-government schools to adopt those recommendations as well without providing any specifically targeted funding."
He said there was a recognition nationwide that parents have the right to choose where they send their children to school.
"But if you're a parent of a disadvantaged child … you're not funded the same way if your child is in a non-government school.
"If you exercise your parental right to send them to a non-government school, for whatever reason, you're going to be further disadvantaging your child."
The IEU is also calling on any future ACT government to lift the rate of funding to Catholic and independent schools.
"There is a benchmark throughout most of Australia where state and territory governments fund non-government schools at 25 per cent of the cost of educating a child in a government school and the ACT contribution falls well short of this," Mr Quessy said.
The IEU wants to see a staged increase from current levels to that 25 per cent benchmark during the next term of government and a simplified and transparent funding formula to provide certainty for schools and their budgets.
The union also called on any future ACT government to commit to land allocation for non-government schools in new suburbs of Canberra.
"With the projected increase in the territory's school-aged population, it is fundamental that artificial impediments to opening new independent and Catholic schools be addressed urgently," Mr Quessy said.
