Page 1741 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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IQs and also suggest that Catholic schools are overfunded. Neither is true. Families across the territory from all backgrounds often struggle to pay school fees, while the schools face an increasing and continuous challenge to keep their fees at affordable levels.
The ACT Catholic Education Office made the following comments in their February 2011 CEO bulletin:
When both Australian and Territory Government funding is taken into account, an ACT Catholic school student attracts substantially less government funding than an ACT government school student … Catholic System schools are not funded individually. Funding attracted by Systemic school is distributed among member schools on the basis of need.
The ACT Catholic Schools Systems receives the lowest level of Australian Government funding per student of any Catholic System in Australia and one of the lowest levels of State/Territory Government support.
The parents of ACT Catholic schools have a similar socio-economic status to the parents of ACT Government schools yet the level of funding available to Catholic schools from government and fees is less than Government schools.
Mr Speaker, reflecting on the second part of my motion, I am proposing that this Assembly:
(2) calls on the:
(a) Minister for Education and Training and the Treasurer to make representations to the Commonwealth Government to ensure that funding for this sector does not decrease in real terms;
(b) Commonwealth and ACT Governments to ensure that Catholic schools continue to be an accessible choice for parents to educate their children; and
(c) ACT Government to provide disaggregation of per student total expenses paid in monetary terms from ACT and Commonwealth Government sources and to report this to the Assembly by the end of this current financial year.
Between the ACT and Federal Labor governments, non-government schools face an uncertain future. Government funding is vital to ensure the financial viability of schools in this sector. Obviously, all schools make long-term strategic decisions based on what they believe will be the level of available funds. They need stability and funding certainty from governments and they need reasonable notice of any changes.
So too do parents need that certainty. They make decisions on what they believe will be the service that the school of their choice is offering and what fees they may need to pay. There are many considerations parents need to make, be it pedagogical style, faith, values, the culture of the school or the pastoral care offered. But the cost of that choice is also a major consideration.
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