From the President: Invest in public education and training
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 2, 28 March 2024, page 7.
The profession is facing a range of complex issues, and the QTU continues to work for members by holding the Department of Education and state government accountable professionally, legally, and industrially. This ensures the working conditions of teachers and school leaders are constantly improved.
One way the Union continues to advocate for enhanced working conditions is through the campaign to ensure that every state school is funded at a minimum of 100 per cent of the schooling resource standard (SRS). This must be the priority as the Queensland Government commences negotiations with the federal government for a replacement National School Reform Agreement (NSRA).
A decade after governments adopted an SRS, 98 per cent of state schools nationally remain resourced below that standard. Right now, state schools across the nation are not funded to educate one in 10 students.
Education has never been more closely linked to the life chances of Australia’s children and the prosperity of our nation. Closing the resources gap is an essential part of closing the achievement gaps between children from different backgrounds. Equity must sit alongside excellence as the twin ambitions for our nation’s public schooling system.
The state government must commit to increased resourcing in state schools – including interim recommendations arising from the Comprehensive Review of School Resourcing. These include funding additional workload reduction strategies, incentive and attraction initiatives, professional development, and quality programs – to ensure that our members can continue to deliver quality state education and training for Queensland’s students.
State Budget investment in education has the potential to provide maximum social and economic benefits across the whole of Queensland. The QTU believes that state schooling and TAFE are at the centre of a civil society. The Queensland Government currently delivers these important services across the length and breadth of our vast decentralised state, and it has a responsibility to invest in funding to support the delivery of world-class education in Queensland.
The current NSRA is delivering 89 per cent, or less, of the SRS, and this cannot continue if the Department of Education’s signature reform, “Equity and Excellence”, is to be implemented. This will require additional funding for state schools from the Queensland and federal governments. If this important additional investment is not made, the educational achievement gap for our most vulnerable students will widen.
All students need access to an education funded at 100 per cent of the SRS, but this is crucial for:
- Queensland’s regional and remote school communities
- students with disability
- First Nations students
- students from low socioeconomic backgrounds
- students with low English proficiency
- small schools.
Currently, that funding shortfall results in Queensland students missing out on $3,055 each per year (AEU, 2022).
For successive years, resourcing models have not kept pace with the increasingly complex and expanding educational expectations of state schools. This has been well documented, most recently in 2023 by the Centre for Future Work in "The Case for Investing in Public Schools", and the Australian Education Union in "Clarion Call for Equity".
The QTU asserts that the Comprehensive Review of School Resourcing cannot be undertaken on a cost neutral basis, and the Queensland Government must allocate funds to ensure that any recommendations the review makes can be appropriately funded. This should be included as part of the renegotiation of the NSRA.