McCarthy Catholic College Newsletter

Catholic Education-

Election 2019 Edition

Catholic Education- Election 2019 Edition

Catholic Education’s Election Funding and Policy Objectives

The key issues for Catholic Education at the upcoming federal election are:

  • increased capital funding
  • more resources for early childhood education
  • religious freedom in schools

In 2017, Catholic school communities funded almost 90 per cent of the capital works in their schools – nearly $1.3 billion – while the federal and state governments jointly provided $152.2 million across our 1746 schools. To put this in perspective, the NSW government is spending 10 times this amount - $1.5 billion each year - on capital works in its 2200 schools.

With the rising cost of land, construction and classroom technology, Catholic schools cannot continue to rely on parents and the rest of the school community to shoulder the burden of increased capital costs to the same extent into the future.

The federal government must help to ease the burden on parents if Catholic schools are to meet the needs of future students.

Catholic Education is also increasing its focus on the delivery of early childhood education, a vital component of each child’s development. Catholic schools are well placed to meet this need, with many new preschools being built next to existing and new Catholic primary schools. This will make life easier for families with young children and puts our preschoolers at the heart of our school communities.

Catholic Education will seek a significant increase in dedicated capital and recurrent funding to deliver quality early learning centres for our families.

While school funding arrangements have now largely been settled for the next decade, Catholic Education will seek to clarify details on key elements before polling day, particularly around maintaining the choice of low-fee Catholic schooling for Australian families.

 

Summary of Known Education Policies

Catholic Education has sought formal responses from the major parties to several questions regarding their education policies. We will share their responses with you early next month.

For now, the parties’ known education commitments are summarised below:

 

Coalition

  • Total spend on all school sectors to 2029 - $308 billion
  • $200,000 to each federal electorate to spend on local schools ($30.2m)
  • New online courses and resources to teach mathematics and phonics ($9.5m)
  • Extend National Partnership on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education to ensure every child can have 600 hours of quality preschool in the year before school ($449.5m)
  • Improve preschool data and participation rates among disadvantaged communities ($4.9m)
  • Enhance Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS) and the Inclusion Support Portal ($4m)
  • Develop social and emotional support materials for students through Life Education Australia ($5m)

Labor

  • Total spend on all school sectors to 2029 - $322 billion
  • Ensuring public schools are funded to 100% of their SRS (included above)
  • Ensuring 15 hours of preschool for every three and four year old in the two years before they start school
  • Establish an Evidence Institute for Schools ($280m)
  • Tax-free bursaries for high achieving teaching students ($45m)
  • Restore Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher program
  • Rebuilding TAFE, waiving upfront fees for 100,000 students and other initiatives ($1.73b)