The Federal Government has outlined more details on the work currently underway on the recommendations of the Gonski review of school funding, including work examinging the details of the per student amount and the levels for loadings to tackle educational disadvantage.

 

The undated review of the Government’s progress was provided to the mebers of the Ministerial Reference Group on school funding, which recently held its third meeting in Canberra.

 

“Our aim has always been to introduce legislation this year, in time for a new funding system to be settled before the current funding agreements with schools expire at the end of next year. It’s an ambitious timeframe but I think it can be done,” Federal Minister for School Education Peter Garrett said.

 

Some of the work to test the recommendations so far has included:

  • Loading for indigenous students. The Gonski report recommended loadings from between 40% to 100% of the student resource standard for each indigenous student in a school. Work is underway to test the effects of different loadings within this range.
  • Loading for socio-economic status. The report recommended loadings from between 10% to 50% for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Work is underway to determine how these ranges would be set and the increments at which they are introduced.
  • Non-government school funding. The review recommended a minimum public contribution of between 20-25% of the Student Resource Standard for non-government schools, and a maximum of 90%, and work is underway to test the effects of various percentages between these two amounts. 

More detail is on the Gonski review and the most recent update of work underway is available at http://www.schoolfunding.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/report_and_further_work.pdf