Victorian and South Australian state governments have signed an historic school funding agreement with the federal government that will put all public schools in both states on a path to full and fair funding.
Announced on 24 January, the Commonwealth will provide an additional five per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) to Victorian and South Australian public schools, respectively.
This will lift the Commonwealth’s contribution from 20 to 25 per cent of the SRS by 2034 in each state. This will see around an estimated $2.5 billion in additional Commonwealth funding to Victorian public schools, and an estimated $1 billion in additional Commonwealth funding to South Australian public schools, over the next 10 years.
This represents the biggest new investment in Victorian and South Australian public schools by the Australian Government – ever.
This includes more individualised support for students, mandating evidenced-based teaching practices and more mental health support in schools.
Victoria and South Australia will both remove the provision allowing the state to claim four per cent of public school funding for indirect school costs such as capital depreciation and replace it with four per cent of recurrent funding on eligible expenses, while also maintaining a share of 75 per cent of the SRS for public schools.
The Agreement will be followed by a Victorian Bilateral Agreement, and South Australian Bilateral Agreement, which will tie funding to reforms already being delivered in Victorian and South Australian schools that will help students catch up, keep up and finish school, such as:
- A Year 1 phonics check commencing this year and an early years numeracy check to identify students in the early years of school who need additional help
- Continue the nation leading investment in initiatives that support wellbeing for learning – including access to mental health professionals in schools
- Access to high-quality and evidence-based professional learning
- Initiatives that improve the attraction and retention of teachers.
In addition, the following national targets will be included:
- Increasing the proportion of students leaving school with a Year 12 certificate by 7.5 percentage points (nationally) by 2030
- Reducing the proportion of students in the NAPLAN ‘Needs Additional Support’ proficiency level for reading and numeracy nationally by 10 per cent.
- Increasing the proportion of students in the ‘Strong’ and ‘Exceeding’ proficiency levels for reading and numeracy by 10 per cent by 2030 and trend upwards for priority equity cohorts in the ‘Strong’ and ‘Exceeding’ proficiency levels nationally.
- Increasing the Student Attendance Rate, nationally, to 91.4 per cent (2019 level) by 2030.
- Increasing the engagement rate (completed or still enrolled) of initial teacher education students by 10 percentage points to 69.7 per cent by 2035.
This means more help for students and more support for teachers.
The states and territories that have signed the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA) – Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) – will also be offered additional funding from the Commonwealth, as per the no disadvantage clause included in their respective bilateral agreements. This will include similar requirements to no longer account for indirect expenditure on schools.
More reading: Tasmania joins WA and NT in signing school funding agreement
