Australian non-government schools will be moving to a new funding system that will use parental income tax data to determine future school funding levels from 2020.

School funding is a complex area of public policy that has been the subject of major reviews and legislative change.

Future school funding changes

It has now become even more complicated after the Australian Government recently confirmed it would move away from the current area-based socio-economic status (SES) score method used to determine parental capacity to contribute to non-government schooling costs and move to a direct parental income measure.

The background on this move is that the government commissioned an independent board – the National School Resourcing Board – to look into this element of the school funding model, which has been in place for a number of years.

According to the government’s response to the board’s recommendations: “The Board found that recent innovations in whole-of-government data linkages mean that a better measure of a school community’s capacity to contribute to their school’s operating costs is now available” – that being a direct measure of parental income.

Therefore annual residential address data that is collected from parents and carers at schools will be matched with personal income tax data held by the Australian Taxation Office.

Experts address parent questions in webinar

The Australian Parents Council has arranged for representatives from the Federal Department of Education and Training who are working on the new funding model to answer parent questions during a live webinar on 27 November.

The webinar will answer a wide range of questions from parents including:

  • How personal tax data will be used to decide school funding?
  • How will it be fair?
  • What impact will it have on school fees?
  • What about privacy?
  • Will special needs and circumstances be take into consideration?

The webinar is open to all non-government school parents. Participants just need to register to join the webinar.

WEBINAR DETAILS

When: 12.00 noon to 1.00pm on Tuesday 27 November.

Where: Online

Register: admin@austparents.edu.au