The Federal Government has warned Catholic schools against increasing their fees following the passage of the Gonski 2.0 funding reforms last week.
In May, the Catholic Education Office Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn released modelling that showed the sector would be forced to hike fees if the Federal Government’s changes to school funding went ahead.
According to the figures released, Sydney and Melbourne Catholic schools would have to hike fees by $5,000 and $4,000 respectively over the next five years.
However, Coalition frontbencher, Christopher Pyne – who was replaced as Federal Education Minister in 2015 – said the sector has been “dishonest”. Pyne’s comments follow reports last month that the sector was shifting money from poorer schools to wealthier ones.
“They have pretended to have commitments from previous governments that were never funded,” Pyne told Sky News.
“If fees go up in the Catholic Church, it's got nothing to do with a lack of money from the Commonwealth government.”
On Friday, National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) executive director, Christian Zahra, said that there is a sense of “deep disappointment” in Catholic education following the passage of the Gonski 2.0 school funding reforms.
“The uncertain future of the system-weighted average, as well as radical changes to the fee expectations for Catholic primary schools, means principals and families are increasingly worried about the affordability of Catholic schools in coming years,” he said.
Zahra said there remain “significant concerns” about various aspects of the legislation, including funding for students with disability, the new National School Resourcing Panel and unknown conditions on funding the Minister can implement.
Meanwhile, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is currently undertaking an audit to assess the arrangements established by the Department of Education and Training to measure the impact of Australian Government school funding, which is due to be tabled in the 2017 Spring session of Parliament
The ANAO is expected to issue a full report on its audit after August.