Why not properly funding public education now is the wrong road

Why? Because right now our federal and most state and territory governments are locked in negotiations over one of the most important issues facing our nation; how we best fund our schools to ensure that no child is left behind by our education system. And we seem stuck.

The National School Reform Agreement, currently being negotiated, forms the basis of these funding arrangements. The agreement, which is designed to lift student outcomes and improve equity, is due to kick in at the start of next year and last five years.

Eight months ago, I wrote an opinion piece for this publication saying with more than 80 per cent of Australia's disadvantaged students attending government schools, we must ensure these schools are adequately funded.

I had hoped that by now, this funding issue would have been settled. Yet disagreements persist over who will pay what proportion of the schooling resourcing standard (SRS) - the estimated public funding a school needs to meet the educational needs of its students, taking into account student and school factors such as disability, socio-educational disadvantage, Indigeneity, school size and location, which all impact educational outcomes.

The Commonwealth is offering to fund 22.5 per cent of public schools' SRS, which will cost it an extra $6 billion over five years, with states and territories expected to fund the rest.

Agreements have been reached with the Northern Territory and Western Australia. But negotiations continue with other states and territories.

The focus must be on all public schools having the resources they need to address educational inequity, by being fully funded to 100 per cent of the schooling resourcing standard, and agreements need to be locked off now.

Not fully implementing this SRS is increasing social stratification in our school system.

Children experiencing disadvantage are concentrated in under-resourced schools. This is exacerbating long-standing gaps in achievement, despite the best efforts of school communities.

How money is spent in education is as important as the amount of funding but what resources are provided to schools, particularly to government schools educating this higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, is a critical first step.

My message to politicians across the Commonwealth and states is, if we don't resolve this now, we risk failing more vulnerable students in this current generation of school-goers, with an education system that's grappling with students with more complex needs.

The more we put this off the more we will continue to have the kinds of outcomes that we have been seeing in too many schools - stubbornly high absenteeism, low literacy, numeracy and science scores, and more students dropping out before completing Year 12.

These factors all hit our nation's most financially disadvantaged students the hardest.

The Smith Family works with over 800 schools who support young people who face the greatest levels of adversity. We know these young people have hopes and dreams like any other young person and that their parents want the very best for them. We also see that when these young people have the right support at the right time, they can shine.

Investing adequately now in the schools which educate the greatest proportion of our most vulnerable students gives these young people the same opportunities as their peers.

It's one of the most astute financial investments governments can make in fostering a more prosperous and cohesive society.

While it's about dollars and cents, it's also about the future of our nation.