School Funding: A Message from our School Council & Parents' Association

Hi SKiPPS community,

School Council and SKiPPA are hoping you will join us in making a submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into School Funding.

The Victorian Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee is running an Inquiry into public school funding. The Inquiry is looking into ‘the impact of the State Government’s decision to delay raising Victoria’s school funding to 75 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard until 2031, effectively cutting $2.4 billion from what was previously committed to Victorian government schools’.

We are pleased to announce that School Council recently lodged our formal submission to the Inquiry and now encourage all community members to lend their own voices.

Public submissions are open until 19 December 2025.

Below is the link to make a submission

Hard copy submissions should be sent to:

Victorian Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee

Inquiry into Public School Funding

Parliament House,

Spring St

EAST MELBOURNE

VIC 3002

Your submission doesn’t need to be lengthy but here are some key points:

Victorian Public Schools are already the lowest funded in Australia.
Public schools educate the vast majority of disadvantaged students. Underfunding of public schools just makes an inequitable education system even worse.

Under the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, the Federal Government offers school funding matched to state contributions. By delaying its share of school funding increases, the State Government is also delaying Federal funding for our schools. The delay has a cumulative impact; by 2028 the shortfall is half a billion dollars and by 2031, the year when Victoria will reach its 75% benchmark, the total shortfall is calculated at $2.4 billion.

The Schooling Resource Standard was set by the Gonski Review and is an estimate of how much total public funding a school needs to meet its students’ minimum educational needs. It is not good enough to delay the attainment of this standard until 2031 – 3 years behind Queensland and 6 years behind New South Wales.

To reach 100% of the SRS, the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement – Full and Fair Funding 2025–2034 was finalised. This was a bilateral agreement, meaning the Federal Government would contribute 25% by 2034 and the states would contribute the other 75%. In March 2025, all states signed the agreement except for Victoria.

The Victorian Government has made a decision not to deliver any additional funding until 2031.

The NSW Government committed to reaching its 75% share of funding by 2025.

The QLD Government committed to reaching its 75% share of funding by 2028.

Victoria’s teachers are the lowest paid in the country. With a teacher shortage across the country, the State Government is doing nothing to keep quality teachers in Victoria. Report on Comparative Salaries.

When school funding is inadequate, schools rely on fundraising to pay for essentials. Fundraising should be for extras, not essentials!

In your submission it would be great to include a personal reference or your own story of when underfunding our schools has affected your family or child. Examples you could mention include:

constant pressure to fundraise to cover school essentials
lack of resources in the classroom
inadequate facilities at school
insufficient support teachers
understaffing
teachers you know of who have moved interstate for better pay
larger class sizes
inability to access required allied health support such as psychologists or speech therapists for your child at school

Your experience doesn’t have to be specific to SKiPPS.

Thank you for your support,

School Council & SKiPPA (St Kilda Park Parents Association)