Labor is trying to make schools worse—again

Australia has one of the most unfair education systems in the developed world. Federal Labor’s new Better Fairer Schools Agreement, which recently passed the House of Representatives, promises to make things even worse.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Education at a Glance report, the federal government spends double the OECD average on private schools. This is while 98 percent of public schools don’t receive the funds they need for most students to meet national minimum funding standards, known as the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS)—according to a 2023 report commissioned by the government.

The result is that elite, high-fee private schools like the King’s School in New South Wales can, according to a Sydney Morning Herald editorial, receive almost $20 million in public funds while also pocketing $58 million in fees, charges and parent contributions annually. The school’s website boasts of seventeen sports fields, nine “halls” and 480 acres of space for its students to “explore, live and grow”.

Compare this to students’ exploration at Sunshine College North Campus in Melbourne’s west. A couple of years ago, students shared videos online of large cracks in the walls, fallen ceilings, unusable spaces and black-mould-infested rooms.

This divide in Australian education is the result of years of putting working-class communities last—by both Labor and Liberal governments.

Labor has often led the charge. In 2010, the Gillard federal government’s Gonski plan promised increased funding for states and territories that signed up to a standardised curriculum and NAPLAN testing regime. The plan failed to secure full funding for public schools but succeeded in maintaining the flow of public funds to private education. Later, Liberal governments pushed for more standardised testing and further entrenched Labor’s funding divide. Analysis by public school advocacy group Save our Schools in 2022 found that private school funding had increased at five times the rate of public schools in the previous ten years.

The Albanese government’s Better Fairer Schools Agreement follows in Gillard’s footsteps by attempting to lock in funding inequality for the next ten years. It removes the Liberal government’s cap on education funding and promises a path to full funding by 2034—but only if states and territories agree to its package and to a funding framework that would leave the federal government paying 22.5 percent of the SRS, short of the 25 percent demanded by the states. Most states have rejected the deal, meaning the current failed framework remains in place.

The removal of the funding cap and deadlock between the federal and state governments are useful distractions from the real issues with the agreement. Not only does it protect the flow of public funds to elite private schools but, even if the states sign on, Labor’s “pathway to full funding by 2034” is about as trustworthy as its “net zero emissions by 2050”. Governments have already rhetorically committed to full funding for many years, while continuing to leave public schools empty handed.

There is another problem: Labor is using the promise of more funding to implement a range of other changes through the agreement. These include more standardised tests. Labor is joining the chorus of conservatives who use a supposed lack of synthetic phonics instruction in primary schools as an excuse to blame teachers for poor literacy scores and to distract from the disadvantage fuelling the crisis in education.

In a welcome move, the national executive of the Australian Education Union has placed a ban on any changes resulting from Labor’s agreement until it deems that there is a “genuine pathway” for all public schools to be fully funded at the SRS standard. But as the failures of “full funding” under previous schooling frameworks suggest, there are reasons to doubt how genuine any of Labor’s pathways might be.

In the meantime, the King’s School can expect to add a few more sports fields to its collection, while public schools will continue to lack the resources necessary to meet staff and students’ most basic needs.