In 2018-19, education welfare will be $5.6 billion, down from $6.2 billion in 2017-18, with a projected surplus of $5 billion in the year to October 2021.
The Coalition’s education policy announced in October 2017 has raised concerns around the school funding balance.
While the Coalition has announced it will maintain a balanced budget, the Government’s 2018-2019 financial statements do not.
As a result, the budget gap in 2019-20 is projected to be between $4.3 billion and $5 trillion.
The ABC’s education correspondent, Paul Kelly, spoke to the head of the education sector, Greg Clark, about what schools need to do to get through the budget period.
Mr Clark said the Coalition’s policy was the “gold standard” of education policy, but the Coalition needed to do better.
“Schools will need to be better funded, more focused on the skills they need to deliver quality education, and more focused and accountable to their communities,” Mr Clark said.
“They also need to have more confidence in their financial projections, which are based on the assumption that the economy is going to continue to improve and the State Government will be able to meet the Government of Australia’s target of budget surplus.”
The Government will provide financial support to schools that achieve a target, as we have done with the school finance and student funding plan, and they will also provide financial assistance to schools to ensure that they meet the targets.
“Schools and their parents have already been told about the changes.
The National Council of Educational Research (NCER), the organisation that represents the interests of parents and schools, is now advising school boards on how they can respond to the policy changes.”
We think the Coalition have gone a little bit too far in this direction,” NCAER chief executive, Susan Jaffe, said.
Ms Jaffe said that the Coalition should have followed the National School Board Association’s advice, which said schools should consider the need to reduce the cost of attendance and “take the lead in supporting parents to find more flexible, flexible hours of education”.”
Ms Jaffa said parents and the school community were encouraged to get involved with the consultation.””
NSEA will be consulting with school boards, parents, and teachers to assess the impact of the Coalition policy change on the education of children.”
Ms Jaffa said parents and the school community were encouraged to get involved with the consultation.
“If you think the school board is going in the wrong direction, the NCEE will be there to talk to you,” she added.
In addition to reducing costs, the policy also includes a number of other measures that will benefit students.”
And we think there are schools that will be affected, they will be the ones who are going to suffer the most.”
In addition to reducing costs, the policy also includes a number of other measures that will benefit students.
For instance, the government is increasing the number of students eligible for free school meals from 2,000 to 5,000.
“There are about 2,500 more students eligible than in 2018-09, and we’re increasing the size of the school breakfast,” Mr Jaffe explained.
“And we are also increasing the funding for school breakfast.”
What we are looking to do is, to ensure we can ensure that children have enough nutritious food, that they are eating enough healthy food, they’re getting enough exercise, and so on.
“The Government also announced changes to the school tax concession, which means the cost to schools of subsidising school meals has been cut.
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