THE Queensland Catholic Education Commission (QCEC) and the Federation of Parents and Friends Associations have joined forces with the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) to seek six key commitments from Federal political parties ahead of this year’s election.
The commitments, seen as necessary to ensure Catholic education remains sustainable into the future are that:
– Catholic schools and systems should have a direct (funding) relationship with the Commonwealth Government, underpinned by legislation.
– Catholic schools and systems from 2013 have, at the very least, access to the same funds, indexed to government school costs, as currently available.
– Catholic systems have the capacity to distribute funds to schools according to need.
– Funding levels must be indexed annually, using a transparent mechanism, to ensure that Catholic schools and systems are able to meet the rising costs of education.
– Funding for students with disabilities must be increased towards parity with government school funding.
– Capital funding should be increased for educationally disadvantaged communities and areas of population growth.
QCEC executive director Mike Byrne said initial steps for a review of Federal school funding that would determine funding arrangements for all schools from 2013 had already started.
Mr Byrne said Catholic schools educated 700,000, or about 20 per cent, of all Australian children across about 1700 schools (288 in Queensland) that employed 78,000 staff.
“It is vital that whichever party is elected commits to adequately resource our schools into the future,” he said.
Mr Byrne said according to the latest figures available, average annual Queensland Catholic school income per student was $10,838 made up of Australian government grants of $5666, state government grants of $2248 and parent and community contributions of $2924.
In contrast, average annual per-student expenditure across all Queensland state schools was $12,426.
(National Report on Schooling 2008)
“This means that even when parent contributions are included, Queensland Catholic schools, on average, operate at only eighty-seven per cent of the resourcing level of government schools,” Mr Byrne said.
Federation of Parents and Friends Associations chair David Taylor said he and Mr Byrne had jointly written to principals and parent leaders of all Queensland Catholic school communities encouraging them to meet with local MPs and candidates over the coming weeks.
“Catholic schools are community schools and provide a high quality, faith-based educational option for families,” Mr Taylor said.
“Sixty-seven per cent of Queensland Catholic schools have an SES (socioeconomic status) score equal to or below the national average so our schools are not wealthy.
“Any shortfall in government funding can force school fees to increase and put significant pressure on many families.
“We are calling on the major parties to make a clear commitment to supporting our schools and to deliver on the six key issues we have identified,”
QCEC and the Federation of Parents and Friends have jointly developed a suite of materials spelling out the key issues and have distributed these to school communities across the state’s 30 federal electorates.
