Full Funding Letter to Your MP
Why is full funding important?
Public schools educate the vast majority of students in this state, and substantial majorities of students with a disability, students from a language background other than English, students from a high-needs background, and students from rural regional and remote areas of the State. Insufficient school funding leads to a variety of challenges for our schools, and you’ve probably experienced at least one of them at your school. These can include too few teachers, collapsed classes, not enough Learning Support Officers and teachers’ aides, too few laptops, too few books, a lack of heat or air conditioning, and obsolete equipment. P&Cs are often asked to fundraise to fill these gaps, but education cannot be funded through sausage sizzles.
Why are public schools underfunded?
The Gonski reforms a decade ago were supposed to guarantee that all schools got funding according to their need, but since then almost no schools in NSW have received 100% of their School Resource Standard (or SRS) level of funding. The SRS is intended to be the minimum level of funding necessary to get 80% of students up to basic levels of NAPLAN proficiency. Private schools, on the other hand, have most often been provided with more funding than their SRS-determined need.
For public schools, the State provides up to 80% of funding, while the Commonwealth provides 20%. For private schools, the Commonwealth provides 80% of SRS funds. Currently, our public schools get nowhere near 100% of their needs-based funding. In our state, 98% of public schools are underfunded by, on average, about 12% in real dollars. This equates to a funding shortfall of around $1.8 billion for NSW in 2024 alone. These numbers reflect political decisions to underfund our public schools, and governments at the Commonwealth and State can increase their funding for public schools to get us to 100% of SRS funding.
What is the P&C Federation doing about school funding?
As an initial matter, we have written to the Prime Minister and the Federal Minister of Education to let them know that we believe governments must do more to fix public school funding. We have signed on to support the “For Every Child” campaign. We are coordinating advocacy efforts with parents’ organisations like ours throughout Australia, and we are working alongside NSW teacher organisations like the Teachers Federation, the Secondary Principals Council, and the Primary Principals Association to make our voices heard. We recently hosted a webinar with the NSW Deputy Premier and Minster of Education and the Secretary of the Department of Education where public school funding was the very first topic discussed.
We have also called upon parents to sign a petition calling for full funding and asked P&Cs to pass a resolution calling on government to fully fund our schools.
What can you do to help?
Politicians need to know that public school parents are focused on school funding and are paying attention to this debate. There are nearly 800,000 students in NSW public schools, and their engaged parents & carers can be a potent political force.
Contact your Commonwealth and State MPs directly to tell them that you expect governments to fully fund public education in NSW, with no gimmicks, no long timelines, and no tricks. We have attached a short sample letter that you could use or adapt;
These funding negotiations are happening right now, and it is important that we speak up. As parents, our voice is stronger when it is a part of a group effort. If we all speak up now, we will be too loud to be ignored. Reach out to the P&C Federation member services team if you need help.
