Media Release
TEACHERS’ UNIONS MUST STOP POTENTIALLY MISLEADING SCHOOL FUNDING ADS
11 July, 2004 MIN 801/04
Today I called on the Australian Education Union to withdraw its potentially misleading television advertising campaign, which wrongly implies Catholic and Independent schools get more public funding than State Government schools.
These ads could mislead Australian taxpayers, as they fail to mention funding provided by state governments. An honest appraisal of the public funding of schools must include the Australian Government contribution and the State and Territory contributions and would look like this:
:
These are the facts on school funding.
About 2.2 million students (68% of all school students) attend State Government schools and receive 76% of the taxpayer funds spent on school education. About 1.1 million children (or 32%) attend Independent and Catholic schools and receive the remaining 24% of taxpayer’s funds.
The Australian Education Union says parents of the 1.1 million students in Independent and Catholic schools should receive no public funding.
The Howard Government believes that every parent, having paid their taxes, deserves some level of public assistance to support the education of their child, regardless of which school their child attends.
The Australian Government gladly supplements the States and Territories’ funding of their state schools through an annual indexation arrangement that consistently delivers increases in funding greater than the states.
The Federal Government’s funding of Independent and Catholic schools is based on a socio economic status model which delivers funding based on the income and education profile of parents.
The schools serving the poorest communities receive 30% less that then average cost of educating that child at a State Government school. The schools serving the wealthiest communities receive 86.3% less than the average cost of educating that child at a State Government school.
Parents deserve to know if Mark Latham supports the AUE’s potentially misleading campaign.
I am today publishing this information on my website at http://www.dest.gov.au/ministers/nelson/media.asp
Media contact:
Dr Nelson’s Office Ross Hampton 0419 484 095
|
