Schools — investing in the next generation

The Australian Government is taking a strong leadership role in our schools. It is significantly increasing funding, as well as setting national standards and goals in our schools.

In this Budget, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to school funding by investing a record $32 billion over the next four years. This is an increase of $8.2 billion over the previous four years.

Of the $8.2 billion increase in funding:

• $4.7 billion is for the Government’s generous school funding indexation arrangements. This indexation is increasing by around 6 per cent per annum
• $3.1 billion has also been allocated for increases in enrolments, increased school completion rates and the implementation of the final phase in of the Government’s Socio Economic Status (SES) funding model

• $404 million is to bring Catholic systemic schools into the SES funding model, fund the Literacy, Numeracy and Special Needs Programme, and provide funding guarantees and capital grants for non‑government schools
• $42 million is for indigenous specific education, including the Education Strategic Initiatives Programme targeting the most disadvantaged Indigenous students.

Students will benefit from greater national consistency in the school system and from values being a core part of schooling.

Parents will benefit from more information on their child’s performance against national benchmarks.

Teachers will be assisted through greater support for high quality teaching.

School principals will be given more autonomy to make decisions on their schools.