David Gonski – the chair of the Review of Funding for Schooling that now bears his name – stood alongside Malcolm Turnbull and Senator Simon Birmingham on May 2 to support the Coalition's "Quality Schools" policy announcement.
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Without any detailed consultation with the Catholic school sector and the schools sector more broadly, the Commonwealth government unveiled significant changes to the way Australian schools are funded.
The Prime Minister and the Education Minister explained that they would be investing more money in Australian schools over the next decade than they had previously committed. On that, they are correct.
They claimed they are implementing the "Gonski" reforms as Gonski intended. On that, they are incorrect.
Diversity ignored
The education experts who joined David Gonski in assessing the needs of Australian schools considered the views of thousands of Australian educators, parents, school communities and school systems.
The panel made a number of recommendations that underlined the importance of Catholic education as part of Australia's diverse school system. The panel sought to secure the ongoing accessibility and affordability of Catholic schools.
The Turnbull government is ignoring some of the panel's key recommendations. That is placing pressure on Catholic schools and families who choose a Catholic education. And, as a result, the way school education is delivered in Australia might radically change in the coming years if this ill-thought-out policy proceeds.
SES funding muddle
A very significant divergence from the Gonski blueprint is the Minister's decision to ignore the recommendation that the "socioeconomic status model" that determines the fee expectations of Catholic and independent school parents be reviewed and replaced – "as soon as possible".
The Abbott/Turnbull government has also ignored the National Education Reform Agreement requirement that the SES model be reviewed by 2017.
The consequences of ignoring this recommendation will be significant.
There is near-unanimous recognition that the SES methodology fails to accurately understand the capacity of parents of children in non-government schools to pay fees. Even the architect of the model, Professor Stephen Farish, said it is out of date and needs to be shelved.
As the Grattan Institute's Peter Goss has explained, the Minister's decision to embrace and tweak the SES methodology will have the effect of expecting parents to contribute more, especially in Catholic primary schools.
Taking away affordable options
The families and students that are most at risk are those low and middle-income families who are currently struggling to afford the increasing cost of an education in Catholic and independent schools that charge modest fees.
This dangerous policy decision risks taking away that affordable school option – leaving families with the choice of a notionally free public school or a high-fee non-government school.
We know parents highly value the ability to choose the school they think will best meet the needs of their child. Successive governments over several decades have supported that fundamental choice.
The Minister has time to avoid setting in motion a policy that would, for the next 10 years, limit or remove that choice for hundreds of thousands of families. If the government doesn't understand this, then the Senate should make the right decision.
Danielle Cronin is acting executive director of the National Catholic Education Commission. She will give evidence to a Senate Inquiry into the government's changes to school funding today.
