Following negotiations with Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory the Government has secured a national agreement on school funding.
The Coalition is committed to ensuring a fairer funding arrangement for schools nationally, whether a deal was signed with the former Labor government or not.
We will restore the $1.2 billion funding cut by Labor – bringing total additional school funding over the next four years to $2.8 billion – ensuring no State or Territory misses out.
We will implement a funding model that is national, fair and needs based while getting rid of the prescriptive command and control features that removed authority for schools from States, Territories and the non-government sector.
Labor left school funding in a mess. The hurried agreements signed in the dying days of the Labor government meant some States secured funding, while others missed out completely.
The Coalition Government is delivering what Labor failed to – a national agreement on school funding that ensures parents, principals and students, regardless of where they live, have funding certainty.
The Government will also honour funding promised to non-government representative bodies for four years including $55 million to Catholic Education Commissions and $110 million to the Association of Independent Schools.
The Government is keeping its commitments on school funding and delivering more funding over the next four years than promised by Labor.
2 December 2013