A decision by the federal government to give funding to a Launceston private school over public schools has angered the national education union.
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Launceston Church Grammar School received a total of $525,000 in federal government funding in 2015 and 2016 for traffic management and a senior secondary student cafe.
The fund allocation was revealed during a budget estimates question taken on notice. The question was submitted in writing by Senator Jacinta Collins.
Launceston Church Grammar School is one of several schools across the country who received funding under the government’s capital works program.
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Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said funneling funds to private schools left Tasmania’s public schools “out in the cold”.
“The public school sector is experiencing the greatest growth in student enrolments of any sector, yet it receives no extra Commonwealth funding to build new schools or deal with the maintenance backlog,” Ms Haythorpe said.
“This is yet again a clear example of the Coalition’s commitment to inequality of opportunity, by favouring private schools over public schools when it comes to funding”.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the federal government had been providing funding to non-government schools “for decades”.
“Building state government schools and facilities has always been the primary responsibility of the state governments and Labor’s wasteful school halls building program shows how much of a disaster federal intervention can be in this space,” he said.
“Under our schools funding plan we’re boosting funding to government schools in Tasmania from $189.9 million this year to $197.8 million next year, to $258.4 million in 2027.”
The federal capital grants program states it has been set up to “provide funding to non-government primary and secondary school communities to improve infrastructure if they don’t have enough capital resources.”
Launceston Church Grammar School has 743 students. Data from the My School website shows that of those students, 50 per cent come from higher socio-economic areas, while only five per cent of its students are from low socio-economic areas.
It is classified as an independent school, non-government, Anglican school.
Meanwhile, Catholic Education Tasmania executive director John Mula said greater clarity was needed around federal funding for the independent school sector.
Mr Mula said a funding model proposed by the national school resourcing board was threatening the ability of independent schools in Tasmania to provide a low-cost alternative to government education.
The funding model proposes to allocate funding based on parental income at specific schools.
It is unclear if this would affect the federal government’s capital works schedule for independent schools.
“If future funding is based on parental income at individual schools, rather than being averaged across our system of 38 schools and colleges, it will limit the capacity of our schools – no matter what suburb or regional town they are situated in – to offer low-fee education options to parents,” Mr Mula said.