GRG funding welcome, but it's time to follow NSW's lead

The Education Minister recently announced the second allocation of Great Results Guarantee (GRG) federal funding to schools.

This was, of course, money that was offered by the previous Labor federal government for the first four years of Gonski funding. Labor also promised a further $1.5 billion in the fifth and sixth years. This funding was rejected by the Queensland Government, unlike New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.

The Minister has made it clear that this was a decision born out of political motivation. The result: only 1/3 of the federal funding initially offered was allocated to Queensland by the Abbott government.

While the funding is only a fraction of what Queensland schools would have received under the Gonski model, it is of assistance, going some way towards compensating for real reductions in state funding to schools, and is paid directly to schools.

The allocation of $183 million for 2015, up from $131 million for 2014, is distributed as follows:

• $111 million to primary schools, an increase of $12 million on 2014
• $2 million to special schools, no change
• $70 million to secondary schools, up $41 million. 

Low Socio-Economic Status National Partnership schools will continue to receive the agreed rate of $800 per student for the remainder of the agreement. In many cases, that will be for just six months, after which they will revert to the standard funding arrangement for all schools.

It appears that the 2014 allocations remain in place for the bulk of the funding, and the additional funding of $52 million for 2015 will be allocated as a loading of an extra $150 per student for all students in years 3-12 with an achievement of less than C standard in English (literacy) and maths (numeracy). This will be an allocation for each of these students. This may in part address educational disadvantage.

However, while the Queensland Government deserves credit for distributing money – won by QTU members through the Gonski campaign – directly to schools, it must accept the blame for failing to fight for a funding model that will deliver for students into the future.

The extra funding provided through the Gonski model will cease after 2017, without any long term needs-based sector-blind funding model to replace it.

The contrast between the situation in Queensland and that in New South Wales is stark. Both are conservative-run states, yet while Queensland accepts what Canberra offers, south of the border the government is refusing to accept anything less than six years of Gonski funding.

As I write, I have just returned from a symposium addressed by New South Wales Education Minister Adrian Piccoli. Minister Piccoli has stood up against the Abbott government, putting the students in New South Wales ahead of politics. He was lauded by representatives of all schooling sectors, community groups and teacher unions as a man of intelligence and courage who demonstrated that he understood that Gonski was not just about money, but about education reform.

As one of the speakers stated, Gonski started as a review of funding, but became a fundamental re-imagining of what education is about.

Barry Welch
Deputy General Secretary

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 119 No 8, 14 November 2014, p12