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THE AUSTRALIAN
Schools funding hit list grows to 51
St Mary MacKillop College Canberra assistant principal
Monica Bailey with her children Sophie, 14, and Daniel, 11,
at the protest meeting last night. Picture: Gary Ramage
STEFANIE BALOGH, PRIMROSE RIORDAN, DAVID CROWE THE AUSTRALIAN 12:00AM May 9, 2017
Funding to 51 private and Catholic schools will be cut or frozen under Malcolm Turnbull’s $18.6 billion education package, which
came under internal attack last night when a Coalition frontbencher broke ranks to challenge the fairness of the measures.
Education Minister Simon Birmingham will today launch an online calculator to enable parents and schools to assess the impact of
the changes. Senator Birmingham has also written to schools to defend the funding overhaul, which the government argues
introduces true needs-based funding and is centred on fairness.
• Budget 2017 Live Coverage
Assistant Minister Zed Seselja, a senator from the ACT, strayed off script at a packed Canberra meeting of angry Catholic parents,
hitting out at the unequal treatment for Catholic schools in the territory and vowing to fight for “the best possible deal’’.
The protest meeting. Picture: Gary Ramage
Details out today confirm that, under the changes, 24 elite independent schools in NSW, Queensland and the ACT lose funding,
including Sydney’s Loreto Kirribilli where parents face a $163 per student shortfall next year, growing to a $2717 funding gap for
each student in 10 years.
Parents at St Aloysius’ College face a per-student hole of $117 in 2018, swelling to $2009 in 2027 while the per student shortfall at
Brisbane’s Cannon Hill Anglican College will be $519 in 10 years.
In addition, all 27 of the ACT’s Catholic systemic schools will have their funding frozen over the next four years, and some
schools in the sector are expected to receive a transition package to bring them into the new model.
Monica Bailey, assistant principal in charge of pastoral care at St Mary Mackillop College Canberra, has three children in Catholic
schools. She took Sophie, 14, and Daniel, 11, along to last night’s crisis meeting at St Clare’s College in the inner-Canberra suburb
of Griffith for ACT Catholic parents.
Ms Bailey believes she could face annual fee increases of up to $3000 for each child.
“It’s a huge economic strain,” she said. “Me and my husband are working, but there are single parents, parents on one income. We
have to make sure we’re not turning people away based on their economic standpoint,’’ Ms Bailey said.
Senator Seselja, who has raised the issue of Catholic funding with Senator Birmingham, told the meeting he agreed with Ross Fox,
director of Catholic Education in Canberra, that Catholic schools were getting a raw deal in the ACT.
He said the way the socioeconomic scores were to be applied in Canberra had “significant drawbacks’’ and ACT Catholic schools
were “not elite schools”.
The data out today shows 200 schools, including 151 government schools, will have growth slowed to 2.5 per cent or less for the
next four years, while funding to more than 4500 schools will grow by more than 5 per cent.
The online calculator will also show funding to schools with similar socioeconomic scores can vary wildly. Mount St Benedict
College in the Sydney suburb of Pennant Hills has an SES score of 119 but receives $3888 more in commonwealth funds per
student than Newington College in Stanmore.
Brisbane’s Anglican Church Grammar School has the same SES as Sydney’s Covenant Christian School but receives $2713 less
per student and less commonwealth funding than it should.
“We’ve been open and upfront all along that more than 9000 schools are set to receive significant funding boosts according to their
need but that also means some schools will have their funding levels frozen or reduced,’’ Senator Birmingham said.
While Liberal MPs are anxious about a backlash from Catholic school leaders, they have cooled talk of a “showdown” when they
meet in Canberra today for a regular party room meeting that threatened to overshadow the budget. Tony Abbott has expressed
concern about the impact on Catholic schools, given the Liberal Party’s belief in school choice, but is not expected to raise the
issue in today’s meeting.
Paul Hine, the principal of St Ignatius’ College, Riverview — where both the former prime minister and Deputy Prime Minister
Barnaby Joyce attended — wrote to the school community on the changes.
“While a loss of revenue for any organisation can be disappointing, the college believes that the needs-based adjustment is fair and
equitable, as it will enable those schools with a very limited resource base to have a greater financial capacity and an expanded
resources base into the future,’’ Dr Hine wrote.
The relationship between Senator Birmingham and the Catholic education sector remains soured by the funding changes, with the
minister rejecting claims the Catholics had been kept in the dark.
He said there had been “numerous meetings’’ and “I was told sitting in my office that 3.5 per cent growth was what they expected,
what they needed to keep up with costs … and we are delivering 3.7 per cent per student’’.
At the end of 10 years, government figures show per-student funding will be higher for Catholic schools, estimated to be $12,493
per student in 2027 compared with $10,853 per independent school student.
Funding growth will be indexed at 3.56 per cent for three years, and then from 2021 shifts to a flexible rate reflecting economy
wide inflation and wages growth.
The Catholics estimate this will be 1.9 per cent and cost all schools $250 million in 2021, while the government relies on Treasury
modelling to estimate it will be closer to 3.3 per cent.
One NSW MP said he was sceptical of the estimates from Catholic school organisations.
“I don’t think their numbers add up, I don’t think their arguments add up,” he said.
The view was echoed by others who believe the school leaders will need to present more detail to prove their case.
“I don’t think I’ve had a single parent from a systemic Catholic school contact me,” said another Liberal MP with private schools
in his electorate.
“Within the party room there’s a bit of anger that the Catholic education authorities are overplaying their hand.”
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ST EFAN IE BAL O G H, PR I M R OS E R I OR D A N, D AV I D C R OW E
Funding to 51 private and Catholic schools will be cut or frozen under the education package.
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