Key points

• The independent agency that monitors school funding says there’s insufficient detail on how government, Catholic and independent school systems distribute government funding and how schools spend that money.
• It says future funding deals should be tied to greater disclosure, as this will quantify how resources affected student outcomes.
• Data that can link funding, classroom practices and school outcomes exist but are not made publicly available, the National School Resourcing Board says.
• Independent Schools Australia declined to comment. Catholic education said it compiled with legislative requirements.
• The Productivity Commission has requested additional information on funding transparency.

The independent agency that monitors school funding says public, Catholic and independent systems should be required to disclose how they distribute government funding to allow more meaningful research into the relationship between funding and outcomes.

The National School Resourcing Board said its capacity to evaluate funding had been limited by a lack of data on how the school systems allocated funds to individual schools and how schools then spent that money. It recommended future funding deals be tied to disclosure requirements.

The National School Resourcing Board wants more information on how government funding is distributed and spent. Credit:Justin McManus

“The problem in Australia is that data that can link funding, classroom practices and school outcomes are not made publicly available, although they do exist,” the board said in a submission to the Productivity Commission.

“There is no consistent transparent information currently provided by Australian governments or by the non-government sector that can be used to assess how school funding is being spent, or even how much funding each school actually receives.”

State and territory education departments, Catholic education commissions and various authorities for independent schools receive government funding in a lump sum. They distribute it according to an estimate of how much total public funding is necessary to meet its students’ educational requirements or their own needs-based funding arrangements.

Non-government schools are required to provide to the federal education department financial data, including government income, recurrent expenditure, trading activity and loans, and liabilities. Some of this information is published on the official school information site, MySchool. Schools also release financial data on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission website.

National School Resourcing Board chairman Michael Chaney says more detailed data from government schools would allow more meaningful research.Credit: James Brickwood

But National School Resourcing Board chairman Michael Chaney said more detailed data from government schools, mirroring the financial data provided by non-government schools, would allow more meaningful research into the relationship between funding and outcomes.

There are concerns that student outcomes are stagnating despite increases in government funding. A recent Productivity Commission report said between 5 and 9 per cent of students every year do not meet year-level expectations in either literacy or numeracy.

The Grattan Institute’s principal adviser of education, Julie Sonnemann, said it was a “massive issue” that there isn’t better data on how school money is spent in Australia, both by government and schools.

“How money is spent really matters, and we need to make sure it’s going to the schools and students that need it most. And that it’s being spent on teaching and learning programs and resources that are evidence-backed.”

Grattan Institute principal adviser of education Julie Sonnemann says it was a “massive issue” that there isn’t better data on how school money is spent in Australia.Credit:Janie Barrett

Federal governments provide the majority of government funding to independent and Catholic schools, while state governments are the majority funder of government schools.

Schools receive extra funding for students with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and students with socio-educational disadvantages and low English-language proficiency. Small schools and those in regional and rural locations also receive additional funding.

Sonnemann said the lack of spending data also meant it was hard to know if the extra money given to schools for specific students with additional needs was being put to best use.

“If we don’t know how money is being spent, there’s no way of knowing if students are getting the support they need,” she said.

Independent Schools Australia declined to comment.

Catholic Education Commission Victoria said Catholic education was “committed to full transparency and complies with all legislative requirements in relation to both state and federal government funding allocations”.

Executive director Jim Miles said the commission “continues to work with government to ensure the information provided is fit for purpose, ensuring a fair, needs-based, and sector-neutral allocation of school funding”.

A Victorian government spokesman said its school funding was “completely transparent – through detailed breakdowns in the Victorian budget, the National Report on Schooling in Australia, the MySchool website and the parliament’s public accounts and estimates committee”.

“Since coming into office, we’ve invested more than any government in Victorian history in our schools, with more than $21.6 billion invested to make sure our kids get the best education, no matter where they live,” the spokesman said.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said Australia needed to “think seriously about how we better target the funding that we invest in schools to help the students who are falling through the cracks”.

“This will be part of discussions when negotiations begin on the next agreement,” he said.

In response to the National School Resourcing Board’s submission, the Productivity Commission has requested additional information on funding transparency.

“What would be the benefits, costs and risks of greater national reporting of school funding and expenditure data to support transparency around state and territory efforts to lift outcomes for students from priority equity cohorts?” it said.

A 2017 Auditor-General report found that the federal Education Department did not have a sufficient level of assurance that federal school funding had been used appropriately, particularly around the requirement for funding to be distributed to schools based on need.

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