Education

CHOICE AND EQUITY:

FUNDING ARRANGEMENTS FOR NON-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
2001 - 2004

IMPROVING NEEDS BASED FUNDING

Since 1973, Commonwealth support for non-government schools has been provided on a needs basis. The Education Resources Index (ERI), a measure of a school’s resources, is the mechanism which has been used to assess the relative needs of schools since 1985. It measures need by comparing the income a school generates on its own behalf with a standard level of resources (based on government school per student costs).

The ERI has been criticised on a number of counts:

The ERI is complex	schools have referred to the ‘mathematical acrobatics’ needed to present their case for Commonwealth funding
The ERI is inequitable	schools serving the same community can be funded very differently
The ERI is inflexible	schools can be locked into a particular funding category, regardless of changes in their communities
The ERI discourages private investment	schools which raise additional income through fundraising efforts can have their Commonwealth funding reduced as a result

The Review of the ERI has found that it is no longer sustainable as a basis for assessing need for Commonwealth funding of non-government schools.

A sound schools funding system should be transparent, predictable, equitable, simple and flexible. For the next quadrennium, the Commonwealth has decided to replace the ERI with a new approach to measuring need, based on the relative SES (Socioeconomic Status) of the school community.

previous | contents | next

Return to the Top of the Page

Any comments or queries should be sent to: wwweditor@dest.gov.au

This page was last updated on Saturday, 23 April 2005
Department of Education, Science and Training
Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia
DETST Web Site Privacy Statement
Disclaimer