“It is an outrageous slur to suggest that non-government schools are ‘pocketing’ government funding [Canberra Times 22 February 2011],” said Independent Education Union of Australia Federal Secretary Chris Watt.
“It is also entirely incorrect to say that Catholic system schools receive ‘technically’ additional entitlement under an alleged ‘no losers’ clause.”
“Using the same type of ‘rigorous’ analysis as Mr Cobbold one could argue that it is not so much a funding bonanza in government schools in the ACT, as Mr Cobbold might describe it, but some sort of funding nirvana for government schools.”
“In the ACT, with a very homogenous socio-economic structure across suburbs, and very similar ICSEA scores for schools (a measure of educational advantage), one might reasonably argue that Red Hill Primary (ICSEA = 1143 with St Bede’s Red Hill ICSEA = 1186) is technically ‘overfunded’ relative to other jurisdictions perhaps and certainly compared to St Bede’s.
“Using a Cobbold-esque analysis one could say that with total government funding of around $14,964 per student at Red Hill Primary compared to a national average of $11,557 per government student or $6,998 for each St Bede’s student, Red Hill Primary is might ‘technically’ be overfunded by $1.86 million or even $4.34 million.
“Similarly to pick another school/suburb listed in the Canberra Times article, perhaps Amaroo School (ICESA = 1099, Good Shepherd Amaroo ICESA = 1093) is overfunded by $4.11 million or even $9.62 million.
“This is of course a nonsense.”
“It is not the case that any school in this nation is overfunded. Indeed there are strong and reasonable arguments for additional resources to be committed to schools, both non-government and government.”
“Such incorrect and inaccurate commentary does no interested party any service and certainly contributes no value to the current school funding review currently being undertaken by the federal government”
Contact:
Chris Watt
Federal Secretary Independent Education Union
Ph (02) 6273 3107 0419 259 143