Australia’s public schools will miss out on $13bn in the next five years if accounting tricks are maintained in upcoming funding agreements, a major report has found.
The National School Resourcing Board’s (NSRB) annual review, tabled in parliament last week, showed government schools lost more than $2bn in 2022 because of a Morrison-era loophole that allows states and territories to claim up to 4% of public school funding on non-school expenditures.
The federal education minister, Jason Clare, has indicated the 4% will not be reviewed until the next round of funding agreements – scheduled for 2030.
Modelling provided to Guardian Australia by the Save our Schools convener, Trevor Cobbold, suggests if Clare’s position remains, public schools will miss out on about $13bn in funding to the end of the decade.
And how many of them have more than a proverbial handful of members and any chance of winning seats in local or national parliaments?
I know these parties - or parties like them - exist. I also know that they are largely way too marginal as to tip the scales of politics in any way. Unlike UKIP, RefUK, or elsewhere the AfD in Germany, RN in France, FdI in Italy, PVV in the Netherlands...