Budget Resources
Shannon Clark and Marilyn Harrington
As there are reviews underway (detailed below) into early
childhood education and care (ECEC) and school
education, the 2023–24 Budget represents somewhat of a ‘holding pattern’ pending
their outcomes.
Unless otherwise indicated, all page numbers refer to Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2023–24.
Early childhood education
The 2023–24 Budget provides $72.4 million over 5 years from
2022–23 for professional
learning for the ECEC workforce, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander educators and those in regional and remote locations (p. 99).
This funding will:
- subsidise training for ECEC services and their staff
-
provide financial assistance for paid practicums in initial
teacher education courses for ECEC educators
-
support practicum exchanges at a different service with a living
allowance for student practicums in rural and remote locations.
The
ECEC sector has welcomed the funding but is disappointed that the Budget is
‘silent’ about educator wages and expanding
universal access to preschool education for 3-year-olds. The findings of
the Productivity
Commission’s ECEC inquiry (due to report in June 2023) and the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into ECEC pricing (due to
report in December 2023) may have implications for these issues.
Current
advocacy to expand universal access for 3-year-olds will likely be enhanced
by the South Australian
Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education & Care. The commission’s interim
report recommended 15 hours a week of preschool for all South Australian
children from the age of 3 from 2026. This coincides with the next scheduled Preschool
Reform Agreement, as the current agreement expires at the
end of 2025.
There may also be implications arising from the Preschool
Outcomes Measure Expert Advisory Group,
which was established to advise the Australian Government on how to measure the
benefits of preschool.
School education
The 2023–24 Budget has limited new measures relating to
school education. Funding is allocated to lift educational outcomes for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander students, improve program administration and departmental
information and communications technology (ICT), and support the National
Teacher Workforce Action Plan. Some measures are partially or fully offset by
savings across the Education portfolio.
Savings measures
The budget measure ‘Education – reprioritisation’ identifies
savings of $13.2 million over 4 years from 2022–23 (and $1.1 million ongoing) for
school-related measures (p. 100). Much of this is from unspecified uncommitted
funding in the National School Reform Fund and Quality Outcomes Program:
-
The National School Reform Fund was part of the Turnbull
Government’s Quality Schools reforms announced
in the 2017–18 Budget. The March 2022–23 Budget provided an additional $62.4
million over 2 years from 2022–23 to extend the National School Reform Fund and
Non-Government Support Reform Fund (Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: March 2022–23, pp. 77–8). As
outlined in Senate
Estimates in April 2022, the National School Reform Fund supported national
reform projects between the Australian Government and the states and
territories (p. 82).
-
The Quality Outcomes Program includes numerous smaller programs
including the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER), Civics and
Citizenship, Arts Education, as well as funding for the Australian Institute for
Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and the Australian Curriculum,
Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (see the Department of Education’s Senate
Estimates briefs, November 2022, p. 430).
Recovering overpayments and improving funding integrity in
non-government schools will save $1.9 million over 4 years from 2023–24
and $1.1 million per year ongoing (p. 100). The Government will strengthen
safeguards to ensure funding for non-government schools is used
appropriately. The Independent
Schools Association, while welcoming funding continuity in the 2023–24
Budget, has noted the lack of detail regarding funding integrity improvement
and argued that ‘Independent schools are already highly accountable to multiple
regulatory bodies’.
The Department of Education has been improving processes
relating to school
funding assurance following the Australian National Audit Office’s report Monitoring
the impact of Australian Government school funding (2017) and follow
up (2021). The department summarised improvements and key assurance and
compliance activities undertaken for non-government schools in response to a Senate
Estimates question on notice in November 2022 (SQ22-000214).
The Budget also identifies $4.2 million in savings over 4 years
from 2022–23 from the Building
Boarding Schools on Country Program (pp. 100–1). As a Department of
Education fact
sheet states, these savings derive from reducing the program’s scope due to
increased construction costs.
Expense measures
The 2023–24 Budget provides funding for Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students’ education initiatives, including $32.8 million
over 2 years from 2023–24 for the Clontarf
Foundation (pp. 100–1). Under the cross-portfolio measure Better,
Safer Future for Central Australia Plan (pp. 83–4), schools in central
Australia will receive $40.4 million over 2 years from 2022–23 for school
attendance and education outcomes. Additionally, $21.6 million is allocated to
extend Indigenous
Boarding Providers grants for another year (p. 191). (See also Budget
review 2023–24 article, ‘Indigenous
Affairs' ).
The Budget also provides $105.9 million over 4 years from
2023–24 to ‘strengthen the Education portfolio’s capability to deliver critical
functions’ (p. 102). Most of this ($91.7 million) is for ICT development to
improve schools’ and higher education providers’ program administration.
Additional funding of $9.3 million over 4 years is provided to
support the National
Teacher Workforce Action Plan (pp. 102–3).
This includes:
The measure description also outlines $25.0 million over 4
years to establish a Teacher Workload Reduction Fund and $10.0 million
over 2 years for a national campaign to raise the status of teachers. However,
these measures were part of $328 million announced
in November 2022, alongside the draft National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.
The October 2022–23 Budget allocated $310.4 million over 9 years from
2022–23 (and $7.9 million per year ongoing) to address teacher shortages (Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: October 2022–23, pp. 96–7).
Where to next for school reform?
The 2023–24 Budget represents a continuation of current
school funding arrangements under Quality Schools funding. In 2023–24, the
Australian Government will provide $28.3 billion to the states and territories
for school education under Quality Schools (Federal
financial relations: budget paper no. 3: 2023–24, p. 40). Of this,
$10.8 billion is for government schools and $17.4 billion is for non-government
schools.
Budget
strategy and outlook: budget paper no. 1: 2023–24 notes a
decrease in payments for government schools due to parameter variations since
the October 2022–23
Budget. In comparison to previous estimates, payments for government
schools are estimated to decrease by $181 million in 2023–24 and $1.2 billion
over 4 years from 2023–24 to 2026–27, ‘primarily due to a decrease in student
enrolments in Government Schools’ (p. 106).
Over recent years, government school enrolments have
decreased, while those at non-government schools have increased. Between 2021
and 2022, the number
of full-time equivalent (FTE) students at government schools decreased by
0.7% (17,046 FTE students), while the number of FTE students increased by 1.0%
(8,208 FTE students) at Catholic schools and 3.3% (20,521 FTE students) at independent
schools.
National School Reform Agreement
The next iteration of the National
School Reform Agreement (NSRA) will likely change current school funding
arrangements and priorities. The NSRA sets out national school education policy
and reform initiatives, as agreed by Commonwealth, state and territory education
ministers. The NSRA began in 2019 and was due to expire in December 2023;
however, in December 2022 education ministers agreed
on a 12-month extension to allow for a review.
The review’s expert
panel is due to report by 31 October 2023, after which the Australian
and state and territory governments will negotiate the next NSRA. The expert
panel’s work will build on the Productivity Commission’s December 2022 report
into the NSRA.
The 2023 NSRA review’s Terms
of Reference state:
The Australian Government is committed to working with State
and Territory Governments to get every school to 100 per cent of its fair
funding level.
This refers to the Schooling
Resource Standard (SRS). The SRS is an estimate of schools’ funding
requirements to meet their students’ educational needs and is the basis of
recurrent funding arrangements under the Australian
Education Act 2013.
In 2023, the Australian Government provides at least 20% of
the SRS for government schools and 80% of the SRS for non-government schools. This
reflects the Australian Government’s role as the minority public funder for
government schools and the majority public funder for non-government schools.
To receive Australian Government funding, state and
territory governments must contribute their agreed minimum share of funding for
school education as a proportion of the SRS, established in bilateral
agreements under the NSRA.
Combining figures
from bilateral agreements with the Commonwealth share, only the ACT
will reach combined minimum funding contributions of 100% of the SRS for both government
and non-government schools in 2023. The Northern
Territory has the lowest combined proportion, reaching 79.0% for government
schools and 95.1% for non-government schools by 2023 (the Commonwealth provides
an additional $78.5 million in transition support from 2018 to 2027 for government
schools in the NT under the bilateral agreement). Across other states, non-government
schools reach around 100% of the SRS by 2023 in combined Commonwealth-state
contributions, but government schools do not.
The ALP,
Greens
and Australian Education
Union have frequently criticised funding arrangements by which government
schools are funded below 100% of the SRS under the NSRA. During the 2022
election, the ALP committed
to ‘put every school on a path to its full and fair funding’, while the Greens campaigned
for a 25% Australian Government contribution to ensure government schools reach
100% of the SRS by 2023. In February 2023, the Greens announced
they would introduce a Bill to amend the Australian Education Act 2013 ‘to
remove the arbitrary 20% cap on Commonwealth funding for public schools’
Schooling Resource Standard’.
The NSRA review will advise education ministers on the
targets and reforms that should be included in the next agreement and how specific
reforms should be tied to funding. The expert panel will also consider transparency
and accountability in relation to how public funding is invested and the
impacts of public funding.
Alongside funding implications, lifting student outcomes (particularly
from priority cohorts) and student wellbeing will also likely be central to the
new agreement.
All online articles accessed May 2023
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