State and territory governments will today be able to calculate how much school funding they should receive from the Commonwealth as the architect of Australia's school funding review, David Gonski, hands over his key modelling tools.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Gonski will address the first meeting of the ministerial reference group and provide a guide for ministers to come up with the most accurate school resourcing standard - a base funding amount for every student across the country.
According to a briefing paper provided to The Canberra Times, Mr Gonski will impress upon ministers that the figures he relied upon to make his initial recommendations to Government were based on 2009 My School data - which is now three years out of date. Based on that data, he suggested in his review that the base school resourcing standard should be $8000 per primary student and $10,500 per secondary student.
But he acknowledged that state and territory governments were privy to more comprehensive and recent data and will today urge them to work co-operatively to road test the system and come up with a standard that would be fair for all sectors.
''What we have put out is a road map. The fact that some part of that road map may show a speed bump should not deter people in trying to get down the road and we think, with goodwill, we should all be making our way down that road,'' he said.
''We must be confident that the amounts are right before we implement the resourcing standard.''
The financial modelling is expected to reveal that Mr Gonski's initial call for a $5 billion investment by the Federal Government will fall severely short of what is needed to bring all schools to a level playing field.
Independent Education Union federal secretary Chris Watt said it was also likely to reveal major differences in the level of funding injections required by each state and territory government.
''There is quite a degree of variability in what Tasmania is prepared to pay per student compared to Victoria and NSW,'' he said.
''I expect, in some instances, jurisdictions may find they will have to put their hands in their pockets and give a little more.''
But ACT Education Minister Chris Bourke said this was unlikely to happen in the ACT.
A spokesman for the minister said officials from the ACT Education and Training Directorate had attended a briefing to the review's Strategic Policy Working Group yesterday and it had been ''acknowledged that the ACT had already made significant injections to the education system - above the national average''.
Mr Bourke indicated a meeting for key ACT stakeholders would be held in the middle of next term.
In today's meeting, Education Minister Peter Garrett will reiterate to ministers that the government was ''a long way'' from committing to the additional $5 billion investment proposed by Mr Gonski and his team.
''We don't yet have an agreed model,'' Mr Garrett said.
''I understand this causes anxiety and maybe cynicism but it is ludicrous to cost a design that is yet to be agreed or tested.''
