Review of School Funding - Speech by Julia Gillard on 15 April 2010

On 15 April, the Federal Minister for Education, Julia Gillard, addressed the Sydney Institute. The topic of her address was A future fair for all: School funding in Australia.

Click here to download the complete text of her speech.

She began her address by saying:

"Tonight I want to address a subject that excites interest and passion in Australia and in many other countries – the funding of our schools. It ignites such passion because how we resource schools goes directly to the aspirations that Australians have for the future – for their children, for their communities, for their sense of potential and fairness in Australian society.

In the past, the question of school funding has been used to divide the Australian community, to pit school against school and school system against school system.

My intention is not to follow this path, but to seek a constructive and open approach to the questions of school funding."

She ended her address by saying:

"The review will be carried out in an inclusive way that allows all of those involved in schooling to put forward their views from the outset.  

As a first step, I intend to consult with stakeholders about the terms of reference for the review.

The terms of reference should go to the most fundamental questions. 

• What is the fundamental entitlement needed to provide a child with a high quality education?
• How do we best cater for the needs of and support students with disability, indigenous students and students at risk to ensure all students have access to a high quality education?
• What are the different funding models used overseas and how do these link to outcomes and quality in their respective education systems?
• What does the My School website tell us about the relationship between resources and outcomes for similar students?

By the end of this month I will release a discussion paper on school funding building on these fundamental questions.  At the same time I will release draft terms of reference for the funding review for consultation. 

I anticipate that these consultations will conclude in May and the details of the terms of reference of the review itself will be announced based on this feedback.

I also believe this review should be conducted in an atmosphere without fear.  So I say today, this is not about taking money away from schools.  While enrolments will always change and students will move in and out of schools, no school will lose a dollar of funding in the sense that their school budget per student will not reduce in dollar terms. 

Under the current system, any school whose SES score changes from one quadrennium to the next receives a Funding Guarantee, if the result of their changed score is that they would receive less recurrent funding under their new score. Today I make a commitment that, following the conclusions of this Funding Review, the same Funding Guarantee will apply to any school.  It will continue to receive the same funding as before until its new funding allocation reaches that level and begins to overtake it. And we will also ask the review to examine what forms of any additional transitional assistance might be appropriate and legitimate to help schools move easily and fairly to a new funding regime.

We are committing to announce any new funding arrangements in 2011, well before the beginning of the 2013-16 funding agreement. We understand that schools have budgets and need to plan for the future. We believe that every Australian child deserves to be supported in their education, regardless of where they go to school. We will ensure an easy and fair transition.

There will be those who seek to misrepresent what I have set out today, to distort the implications of my argument, and to seek premature restriction and closure of this review’s conclusions. I fully expect the Opposition led by Mr Abbott to start an irresponsible untruthful fear campaign trying to scare schools by saying they will lose money.

To this expected fear campaign I simply say, who do you trust to provide resources to schools? The Rudd Government which has almost doubled the amount of money going to school education or the Opposition which neglected schools in office, tried to stop the legislation for National Curriculum and My School and opposed the Building the Education Revolution injection of cash into schools.

I recognise that the debate about different options should be spirited – I welcome that. But spirited and open exchange and consideration is not the same as seeking to close off debate. We will not allow our opponents to misrepresent the nature of this review, and we will seek community support for a process which is open, thorough and balanced. I urge Australians not to see threats from this review but opportunities. And I ask the whole Australian community to participate in this most important debate about our nation’s future."