Government Funding in Schools

Government Funding in Schools

In Australia we have two types of schools, you have the government schools and the non-government schools. In 2005 33% of all students were in non-government schools.

In anyone’s terms the number of students in non-government schools are quite significant, this may help to explain why the �public versus private’ debate is not as hotly debated as it was in the 60s or even in the 80s. Non-government schools have now become major providers of education to Australian students and the public is starting to recognize this even though some teachers unions may not acknowledge it.

In Australia both the Federal and State governments contribute to the resourcing of school education. The Federal government is the main source of government funding for non-government schools, although they do receive some funding from the state government.

The main form of government funding for non-government schools comes in the form of �Federal government per student recurrent grants’, because of this, the amount of funding the school gets is in direct proportion with how much money the students parents make.

For students attending schools at the highest end of the scale, the schools only receive the most basic of funding, which works out to be around 13% of the amount a government school would get if that same student was in a government school instead.

As the amount of students in non-government schools increases, shouldn’t funding increase as well?

Government funding needs to be encourage private contribution, not penalize it. At the very least, all students need to be guaranteed basic funding, no matter what school they attend.

James McMillan