Australian public schools reach funding agreement with long wait for full support
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The Victorian government and the Australian federal government signed a school funding deal to bring public schools toward a full funding benchmark.
This agreement ensures that every public school in Australia now has a defined timeline to reach 100% of the schooling resource standard. This standard, which originated from the 2011 Gonski review, determines the government funding required to meet the educational needs of students.
The Commonwealth government will provide 25% of the resource standard for public schools while states and territories provide 75%. The Northern Territory follows a different split where the federal government provides 40% and the territory provides 60%. While some regions like the ACT, Western Australia, and Tasmania are now fully funded, other jurisdictions like New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia will not reach 100% until 2034.
Victoria currently funds 90.43% of the standard and plans to increase its share to 75% by 2031. The deals provide an estimated A$16.5 billion in extra federal funding over the next decade and approximately A$50 billion in the following decade. Despite these agreements, many current students will graduate before the system reaches full funding. Education Minister Jason Clare noted that the reading gap between children from poor and wealthy families has doubled over the last 15 years.
The agreements remain subject to future political changes and budget pressures, and they do not currently include specific targets to close the inequality gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
