The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has become the fourth state or territory to sign on to the Federal Government’s Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA).
Public schools in the ACT currently receive on average 100% of the School Resourcing Standard (SRS) as the Federal Government contributes 20% and the ACT contributes 80%. Under today’s agreement, the Federal Government will contribute an extra $110.5m to ACT public schools between 2025-2029, with more than $1bn total funding being provided across the five years.
The deal ties additional Commonwealth funding to a range of reforms, such as Year 1 phonics and early years numeracy checks, greater wellbeing support for students, and initiatives to reduce teacher workloads and improve teacher retention.
“This is an important day for public education in the ACT, and great news for ACT students, families, teachers and school communities, and is an important step in building a better and fairer education system.” Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, said.
ACT Minister for Education and Youth Affairs Yvette Berry said the deal will build on the ACT’s commitment to ensure children and young people are “set up for success through a high-quality public education system.”
“This agreement delivers extra funding for evidence-based literacy and numeracy teaching, more school psychologists and mental health professionals, investment in principal wellbeing and teacher workload reduction initiatives, and more funding for flexible education offerings to ensure all students can thrive at school,” Berry said.
“This funding boost will mean extra resources are directed where they are needed most to ensure ACT public schools continue to be great places for students to learn, and great places for staff to work.”
Only NSW, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia are yet sign on to the federal school funding deal. The states are pushing for a 5% increase in federal funds before the current school funding agreement expires on 31 December.
Prue Car, who heads up Australia’s largest education jurisdiction, the 5% funding gap “puts NSW public school students $1,000 behind the starting line”.
“I want to make this really clear – NSW is not signing up to an agreement that doesn't benefit the public school students of NSW,” Car said.
“We need the Commonwealth Government to come to the table with a bigger share of funding so we can actually make sure that at the starting line, our kids have a better go, a fairer a go at it.”