ONE of the curiosities of Australia’s three-tier system of government is the constant wrangling that must go in terms of funding.
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The federal government sits at the top of the funding tree, raking in billions in revenue through the tax system to spend on Commonwealth responsibilities including welfare and defence.
The states are left to fight for their share of GST revenue – and politically expedient handouts – to keep the health, education and justice systems running.
Councils are at the bottom of the tree, collecting rates to pay for roads and community infrastructure – along with whatever cost-shifting burden the state government has seen fit to pass on.
It’s a system that demands and promotes conflict between the three levels and ensures that the most contentious areas of funding are never adequately resolved.
Which brings us to education.
Scott Morrison is just the latest federal leader to find himself at the centre of an education funding dispute that conflates issues of religion, fairness and class.
His proposal to create a special $1.2 billion fund for private schools and pay it directly to Catholic and independent school authorities to distribute as they see fit has naturally sparked the latest public versus private stoush, but with a difference this time round.
What is traditionally a Labor versus Liberal debate is this time a Liberal versus Liberal fight, with NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes saying he would not sign any deal that didn’t treat every student and every school with fairness.
With friends like Mr Stokes, the federal Coalition government hardly needs more enemies.
But Mr Stokes has hit on what should be the central consideration in all education funding debates – the difference between equality and fairness.
Equality is giving each child the same, fairness is giving each child what they need. Fairness is much more difficult to achieve but must be the gold standard.
A child with special needs enrolled in a Catholic or independent school should rightly be entitled to a higher level of government funding than a child with no special needs enrolled in a public school.
Too often at the moment, that is not the case and that discrepancy more than any other is robbing parents of real choice when it comes to their children’s education.
