‘Equity index’ to determine school funding
WELLINGTON: School funding is set for the biggest shakeup in a generation with a new ‘‘equity index’’ to replace the current decile system from 2021 or 2022.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins says the Cabinet has ‘‘agreed to the inprinciple replacement of deciles with an equity index’’ — a new system allocating more funds for children with risk factors, such as their parents being on benefits.
‘‘This is subject to the results of a widespread consultation with principals and sector stakeholders in 2019, public engagement on the replacement in 2020, and additional funding in Budget 2020 or 2021 being available to allow the equity index to go ahead,’’ he said yesterday.
The announcement confirms that the Labourled Government will go ahead with a riskbased funding system which appears to be very similar to a proposal developed by the former National government, which Mr Hipkins put on hold last year.
The Ministry of Education said the new index ‘‘estimates the extent to which each child grows up in socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances that we know to be associated with their likelihood of achieving in education’’.
It said the index would include. —
• Proportion of time the child has been supported by benefits since birth.
• Child has a Child, Youth and Family [Oranga Tamariki] notification.
• Mother’s age at child’s birth.
• Father’s offending and sentence history.
• Ethnicity.
• Youth Justice referral.
• Mother’s and father’s average earned income over previous five years.
• School transience.
The decile system, which has been in place since 1995, allocates about 3% of total school funding to schools based on the socioeconomic status of the areas where pupils live.
In contrast, Mr Hipkins said the new equity index would be based on anonymised data about the family backgrounds of the actual children attending each school, regardless of the socioeconomic status of the area they lived in.
‘‘The methodology has strict measures in place to protect children’s privacy,’’ he said.
He said a bigger share of school funding would be based on the new index. ‘‘Currently, 2.9% of resourcing for schools, or around $150 million, is targeted for equity,’’ he said.
‘‘However, it is clear to the Government that current equity resourcing is not enough for schools to reduce the impacts of socioeconomic disadvantage for many of our students. I consider that the Equity Index should be introduced with additional funding to help ensure success for more of these students.’’
The previous National Government proposed a ‘‘riskbased’’ funding system paying more for pupils who had one of four risk factors: a parent who had been to prison; if they or a sibling had suffered child abuse; if their family had relied on a benefit for a prolonged period; or if the child’s mother had no formal qualifications.
Its 2016 Budget began to implement the policy by giving schools an extra $12 million for about one in six pupils whose parents had been longterm welfare beneficiaries.
The targeted approach meant more than 1300 schools got less money than they would have received if the extra $12 million had been allocated on the former decilebased system.
About 816 schools received more, and information on a further 242 schools was suppressed for privacy reasons, because fewer than five pupils were at risk.
Mr Hipkins said last year that he planned to keep the decilebased system at least until 2020, while he reviewed National’s funding formula.
A task force led by former school principal Bali Haque recommended last December that funding based on pupil disadvantage should be doubled from 3% to 6% of total school funding, including funds for teacher salaries.
Government decisions on the Haque proposals are expected in the next few weeks. — The New Zealand Herald