“The Senate should pass vital the State Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Bill without further delay”, Dr David Kemp, the Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs said today. “Only when this Bill is passed will every school in the country be able to benefit from the record levels of funding it provides.”
The State Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Bill is the biggest ever investment by any Commonwealth government in primary and secondary education. It demonstrates the Commonwealth’s commitment to improving educational outcomes for all young Australians with increased funding, strategic intervention, improved standards and choice.
It will boost public confidence in Government schools by providing not only record levels of funding, but also measures by which schools can demonstrate to parents that their children are receiving the quality education that is their democratic birthright.
This legislation delivers some $22 billion to schools over the next four years and provides increased funding for all schools. Included in this legislation are.
•implementation of the new socio-economic status (SES) funding arrangements for non-government schools which is essential to provide improved funding for schools serving the neediest communities..
“The former category 1 schools –the subject of so much media attention and pretended outrage from the Labor Party – will get about 2.8% of the total funding “said Dr Kemp. “The previous mechanism for funding non-government schools which the Labor Party put in place and twisted through constant political manipulation is now history,” said Dr Kemp. “In its place is a fairer and more equitable funding model that provides a significant funding boost for the neediest non-government schools and which reflects the actual needs of parents with their children at these schools.”
Private Schools Public Education School
Private Schools The first position of chapter three is supportive of private schools. This position feels that private schools prevent the public schools from having a total monopoly over education by offering the community an alternative choice. This choice also produces competition with public schools for student enrollment. This position views public schools as something a student must accept ...
•Funding for government schools over the next four years will total $8.6 billion. Government schools will receive $1.4 billion more in the next four year funding period than in the last quadrennium.
The legislation also contains a streamlining of Commonwealth equity programs and much stronger accountability for Commonwealth funding.
•The Commonwealth’s new Strategic Assistance for Improving Student Outcomes program is aimed at improving learning outcomes of students who are educationally disadvantaged, including student with disabilities and student struggling to reach the national performance benchmarks in literacy and numeracy This program will provide $1.2 billion over four years. The streamlining of the literacy and numeracy and special education programs gives education authorities greater freedom to allocate Commonwealth funding to schools to achieve improved learning outcomes for students.
For the first time new arrangements for educational accountability will require education authorities – both government and non-government – as a condition of funding, to commit achieving to and report on performance measures and targets underpinning the National Goals for Schooling. Education authorities will be expected to report the percentage of students in years 3, 5 and 7 achieving the national literacy and numeracy benchmark standards. The expected target for education authorities is for all students to achieve the year 3 literacy and numeracy benchmarks from 2002 onwards, recognizing there is a very small percentage of students suffering severe educational disabilities. Performance measures in other key areas like science, IT and vocational education will be included as they are identified and endorsed by Education Ministers.
Student Achievement Education Spending School
Equality in School Finance In The Story of the Education Dollar, Odden, Monk, Nakib and Picus describe some basic facts about education spending in the United States to facilitate an understanding of the level and uses of the federal government's policies on education funding. The purpose of the authors' discussion is to argue that public education facilities need to change their focus on the ...
“This is the most far reaching commitment to improved standards ever undertaken in legislation by a Commonwealth Government” said Dr Kemp. “The reporting built into this legislation will have immediate and direct benefits. It will build public confidence in our schools by providing an agreed national framework against which parents can assess their children’s progress in key areas. The Commonwealth is encouraging educational authorities to improve reporting to parents including information on the performance of students against the national standards.”
“The strength of this approach is that it provides assessment and reporting of student achievement against nationally agreed standards but it does not mandate how schools should achieve those improved outcomes. These accountability measures will throw the whole weight of the Federal Government’s $5 billion annual investment in schools behind improving educational outcomes” said the Minister.
