GILLARD’S GONSKI WARNING
State would lose $660m under Abbott plan, Gillard says
AUSTRALIAN children will miss out on $16.2 billion in school funding over the next six years if a massive shakeup to education funding is foiled by Tony Abbott, the Government has claimed.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard personally delivered news of a $660 million loss to Tasmania as she pointed to the Opposition Leader’s refusal to support increased school spending.
That amounts to $500 million JESSICA MARSZALEK in lost funding for government schools – or $2.6 million on average per school – and $160 million for non-government schools – or about $2.4 million per school.
The new data, which com- bines federal and state funding under the changes, comes as the Federal Government takes election war footing on the issue of school spending.
Ms Gillard said all states would be worse off under the current system as falling indexation lowered federal funding.
‘ ‘ Having delivered the budget, we can now say with certainty what the difference is between staying with this broken system as opposed to em- bracing our agenda to better fund every school,’’ she said.
That was a ‘‘staggering difference’’ that all parents should be aware of, she said.
‘‘They are resources that could be used in schools for literacy coaches, for extra teacher’s aides, for work that would improve the education of those school students,’’ Ms Gillard said.
NSW is the only state to have signed up for the changes so far, but Ms Gillard said conversations with other states continued.
The Gonski model aims to resolve entrenched disadvantage by allocating a standard amount for every student and additional money for disabled students, indigenous students, those from poorer and regional areas and those from nonEnglish-speaking families.
But the Coalition says throwing extra money at schools will not fix falling standards and it wants the current model kept.
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne disputed the figures.
‘‘Under the current model, no school would be worse off,’’ he said.
‘‘While indexation goes up and down, it has on average, delivered 5.6 per cent over the last decade in additional funding not the 3 per cent the Government claims.’’