While it is understood that the Commonwealth is the predominant funder of non-government schools, how will your party ensure Catholic schools remain affordable for most NSW families?
NSW Labor has consistently supported the push for needs-based funding of schools across all sectors in the state and believes this is the most equitable measure for schools. Research has consistently shown that education in NSW is the most expensive in Australia, putting pressure on parents, families, and school communities to financially support schools.
The Shadow Minister for Education, Mr Jihad Dib MP, has consistently spoken
about this issue both publically and privately, most recently at the Sydney
Morning Herald 2019 Schools Summit, with the Council of Catholic School
Parents, and with the CEO of Catholic Schools NSW Dallas Mcinerney and Head
of External Relations Jim Hanna. He has spoken consistently of the important
role non-government schools play in NSW and acknowledges the varied
motivations for sending children to these schools. Mr Dib supports parental
choice when it comes to school selection and notes the diversity found within the
non-government sector, including many low fee-paying schools.
It is not the job of the NSW government to make Catholic schools affordable. The Greens believe that public education funds should be directed to public schools.
The Christian Democratic Party believes everyone has the right to education and the right to choose a school for their children that reflects their traditions and beliefs.
The Christian Democratic Party believes children are our future and we must fully empower the younger generation with highest quality education, syllabuses and further training.
We believe every child in NSW has a legal right to access and participate in education, regardless of disability or special needs.
We believe higher education, vocational education and further training plays an essential role in our society as an engine of economic growth.
We believe Governments should ensure equitable and fair delivery of funding to all schools to ensure everyone receives excellence in education.
We believe good teachers are an essential part of good education. Money does not deliver the best education – teachers do. Teachers play a central role in empowering the next generation with the tools they need to build a successful life in whatever fields they choose. Teachers should be supported and adequately trained. Teachers are encouraged to ensure students gain the knowledge and skills to become effective learners and ultimately effective and responsible people.
We understand Catholic schools are a vital partner in NSW education, enrolling one in five NSW students and giving parents a quality, affordable schooling option for their children. The Christian Democratic Party will ensure Catholic schools in NSW are represented and fairly receive funding.
The NSW Liberals & Nationals Government are presently funding all schools at record levels. We have held firm with the Gonski principles of needs based, sector blind funding – meaning funding based on the needs of each student, regardless of where they live or what school they attend.
The NSW Liberals & Nationals appreciates the role that Catholic schools play in offering parents an affordable faith based education.
With almost 420,000 students and over 900 schools, the NSW government has an important role in funding our non-government school sector that accounts for approximately 35% of total student enrolments.
This funding will consist of recurrent funding, delivered through the National School Reform
Agreement signed in 2018 with the Commonwealth – and capital funding , delivered through the NSW Government’s Building Grants Assistance Scheme (BGAS).
The NSW Liberals & Nationals Government recently announced that we will invest a record $500 million over the next four years into the BGAS program so that Catholic and independent schools can build more classrooms and cater for growing enrolments.
This record funding announcement will continue to ensure that every student in NSW continues to receive the best possible education, in the best facilities – no matter where they go to school.
The Animal Justice Party does not have an education policy on this topic. However, the AJP acknowledges the ‘Gonski Report’ findings that schools receiving low levels of funding are inadvertently impacting the academic achievements of those students. Therefore, a successful AJP candidate would be free to support funding that subsidised the enrolment and school fees to all educational institutes on a sliding scale, where public schools continue to receive the maximum level of funding, followed by religious schools, and then independent or private institutes.
We support government adequately funding religious schools and ensuring that our tax system operates fairly so that Catholic schools are affordable for NSW families. We are committed to ensuring NSW laws and policies are supportive of Catholic schools and will lobby the federal government to adopt the same position.
The party supports the parent’s right to choose a Catholic education for their child and we believe that all schools should be funded equitably and will push for this to occur. This is a position I reiterated to Dallas McInerny from the Catholic Schools NSW recently.
We support any extra funding provided to needy Catholic schools, and urge the NSW Government to address the stark imbalance between capital funding of government schools in NSW and the non-government sector. Please note that as Labor leader in 2004 I promoted a policy of $500 million P/A in extra recurrent funding for needy Catholic schools. Unfortunately, the Sydney Archbishop at the time collaborated with his Anglican counterparts to issue a statement critical of the policy. The schools never received the funding. Yet I maintain my strong support for additional Catholic school funding, now as NSW One Nation leader.
Be sure to check out our other Election Guides:
Thanks for participating in our Election Poll!
