School Education Minister Peter Garrett today welcomed a decision by State and Territory Education Ministers to work together on school funding reform.

Ministers agreed to develop a roadmap for reform setting out key decision points, and to continue the work already underway.

Mr Garrett said today’s meeting in Sydney was an important step forward in lifting Australia’s education performance and delivering the best results for students and families.

“Today, Ministers noted the important work carried out by the Gonski review panel and agreed that we need an effective school funding system to ensure both equity and excellence in our schools,” he said.

“Ministers agreed that work will continue on developing the proposals put forward by the review panel, including the concept of a Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) and additional loadings to help overcome disadvantage.

“We’ve got lot of work ahead, but today’s meeting is a significant step in ensuring that work gets done.”

Today’s meeting agreed that:

• A high level policy roadmap will be developed by June this year to set out key decision-points and the work that needs to be completed.
• The technical work that has already been started by various official groups will continue in a timely manner.
• Work already underway by state and territory governments and non-government school sectors to further develop the proposed SRS settings, the various loadings and other recommendations of the Gonski review will also continue.

Mr Garrett said today’s meeting also noted that there are some issues which need to be further discussed as part of the overall funding reform process.

“State and territory governments clearly have their own views on the Gonski proposals and the potential changes to the way schools will be funded – today we have listened to these views and agreed to continue to work through them,” he said.

“The important point is that education ministers today recognised the significant opportunity we have to reform school funding on a national scale, helping us to lift performance, address disadvantage and lay the foundations for Australia’s future prosperity.

“The next step is for a set of funding principles to be put before COAG next week.”

More information about the school funding review is available at www.schoolfunding.gov.au