Unanswered questions for the Prime Minister

Labor is yet to provide any detail on their planned changes to school funding, leaving the schools sector and the States with many unanswered questions, said the Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne today.

“I call on the Gillard Government to give schools the certainty they need and immediately answer the following questions:

1. Where will the at least $6.5 billion per year the Government floated come from? 
2. How much will the Commonwealth contribute and how much are the States expected to find? 
3. What programmes will be cut and what taxes will the Government increase to pay for it? 
4. If the Gonski modelling shows 3,254 schools worse off, how much extra will it cost for every school to receive more funding as Ms Gillard has promised? 
5. Where is the modelling showing the impact of this funding for each school?
6. Will the Prime Minister guarantee no school will have to increase school fees as a result of her changes? 
7. Will the Prime Minister rule out a means test on school funding? 
8. What new information will schools be forced to collect from parents about their income in order to qualify for additional government funding?
9. Where is the detailed response to the 41 recommendations in the Gonski Review?
10. How much indexation will each school and school sector receive? 
11. What will be the benchmark funding per primary and secondary school student? 
12. How much funding per student will be allocated for students with a disability?
13. Will this funding be portable between the government and non-government sectors?
14. What, if any, future capital funding arrangements will be provided for schools?
15. What new reporting requirements and other conditions will schools have to meet in order to quality for Government funding?

“The Coalition is the only Party that can guarantee school fees will not rise as a result of Commonwealth Government funding changes. We can also guarantee no school will be worse off, all schools will be better off under a Coalition Government,

“Why wont the Gillard Government make the same promises?” Mr Pyne said.

September 5, 2012