Regional schools could lose $97m under funding revamp

Independent schools in regional Victoria warn they risk losing almost $100 million over the next decade under the Morrison government’s new funding formula.

Star regional school Ballarat Clarendon College – which topped the state’s VCE results last year – is one of 11 independent schools in regional Victoria identified to lose millions under the new model.

The Coalition for Regional Independent Schools warned that cuts sustained under the new model would trigger a rise in school fees, prompting more low-income families to leave, in a ‘‘vicious spiral’’ of funding cuts.

The Morrison government introduced legislation last week that would rewrite the funding rules for non-government schools.

Catholic and independent schools would get a $3.4 billion boost in funding between 2020 and 2029 under the proposed model, but a minority of schools deemed wealthy under the new formula would have their funding cut.

The new formula is based on a direct measure of parents’ median taxable income, superseding the current geographical assessment of a school’s socioeconomic status.

Independent Schools Victoria has calculated that regional schools in Victoria would be heavily affected, losing $96.4 million to 2029.

Those schools educated 56 per cent of children in Victoria who attended an independent school, the advocacy group said.

‘‘This will particularly affect well-established regional schools,’’ Independent Schools Victoria chief executive Michelle Green said. ‘‘These schools are not necessarily well-resourced, highfee schools.

‘‘Many charge mid-range fees and serve the needs of a widely diverse range of families who are already suffering economic hardship, some of whom have experienced drought and bushfires.’’

The chair of the Coalition for Regional Independent Schools, Stephen Higgs, said they had calculated that 11 private schools outside Melbourne would be stripped of about $97 million in funding between 2022 and 2029.

‘‘It’s going to be devastating for a large number of regional schools,’’ he said.

The list of affected schools includes Ballarat Clarendon College, Ballarat Grammar, Braemar College in Woodend, Gippsland Grammar, Highview College in Maryborough and Newhaven College in Phillip Island.

Private schools in Bacchus Marsh, Shepparton, Geelong, Warragul and Hamilton would also lose funding under the new model.

Mr Higgs said the new model could push some of these schools towards closure.

‘‘These schools will lose funding, so if they want to maintain programs ... they will have to raise their fees,’’ he said.

‘‘The lower-income families won’t be able to afford it so they will drop out, so the direct measure of income will go up and the school will lose more funding, and then more parents will drop out. So it’s a vicious spiral.’’

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said on Sunday that schools would be able to have any funding cuts under the new formula reviewed. The government has guaranteed no school would lose funding under a transition period that would last until 2022.

It calculates that about 80 per cent of independent schools would be better off or see little change under the new model.

A ‘‘choice and affordability fund’’ of $1.3 billion over 10 years has been set aside for schools that could lose funding.

The Catholic education commissions and independent schools associations in each state could spend the funding as they wish as long as they complied with the national priorities.