Last week, the Australian Government released the detail of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA) which is a 10-year agreement developed with state and territory governments, non-government peak education bodies including the National Catholic Education Commission, and First Nations education representatives.

The government’s reforms are designed to lift student outcomes, set targets and improve school funding transparency including a Year 1 phonics check and early years of schooling numeracy check; evidence-based teaching and targeted supports for students falling behind; greater wellbeing support; incentives to attract and retain teachers; and high quality professional learning and classroom resources.

The Australian Government is offering increased funding for public schools of 2.5% with states and territories required to match a further 2.5% to bring them to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), which is tied to the new reforms for those states that sign on. Catholic schools already have a funding agreement in place until 2029 and reached the full SRS in 2023.

The exception is Northern Territory (NT) public schools who will receive double the amount of funding (40%) from the federal government to come up to 100% of the SRS by 2029, and NT Catholic schools will receive a marginal increase of 0.71% in 2025 until 2029 when they will receive their full 20% from the territory government to bring them in line with public schools and non-government school in Australia.

It is important to remember that all government funding to Catholic schools is means-tested and the amount of the SRS decreases according to the median income of families that attend the school.

For example, if the SRS was $1 per student, public schools are currently receiving about 95 cents in the dollar with the government offering a further 2.5 cents and asking states to add 2.5 cents; non-government schools with the lowest income families are receiving the maximum 90 cents in the dollar; and schools with the highest income families are only receiving 20 cents in the dollar.

On average, Catholic schools receive around 75 cents in the dollar, with families expected to contribute to the shortfall.

While Catholic education does not sign up to the BFSA directly, we are required to respond to, and deliver, on the reforms outlined by the government. These are largely in line with our national priorities to support learning and teaching, wellbeing and access for all students.

An example is the development of the Mastery in Mathematics curriculum resources for the teaching of Years 7 and 8 Mathematics with Ochre Education. This project will be expanded next year to include Year 9 Mathematics and will be supported by an evaluation conducted by the University of Notre Dame Australia.

For more information on the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement see here.

Jacinta Collins
National Catholic education executive director