24 May 2017

Sir Robert Menzies’ old school in his home town of Jeparit is set to lose 43 per cent of its federal funding per student under the policies of his Liberal successors.

Jeparit Primary School is just one of a long list of the most disadvantaged public schools across the country facing funding cuts under Malcolm Turnbull and Simon Birmingham’s new ‘needs-based’ model, according to My School data and the government’s own funding estimator, according to the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria.

‘We have said all along that it’s not just the Catholic systems that will be hit under the Quality Schools proposals,’ CECV Executive Director Stephen Elder said.

‘These figures show the magnitude of the blow.

‘The most recent figures from the My School website and Senator Birmingham’s own funding estimator show that close to one in five of the most disadvantaged government schools around the country – those where 75 per cent or more of their students come from the most educationally-disadvantaged families, according to the government’s own measure – face funding cuts.

‘The government keeps claiming it is guaranteeing needs-based funding.

‘If this is supposed to be a needs-based funding model, why will some of the most disadvantaged public schools in the country lose money?

‘The government has called us names and attacked our analysis of the measure, but they have not said it is wrong.

‘At the same time Catholic education has been criticised for using our own needs-based formulas to allocate government funding to Catholic schools.

‘When you look at these figures, you can see why. The government’s funding model is clearly broken.

‘Why should we send our schools broke by blindly following their flawed model?’

Further information and a list of schools can be obtained by contacting Christian Kerr, Media Adviser, 03 9267 4411 or 0402 977 352