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Catholic Education Tasmania announcement

Gavin Abraham, Communications Manager, National Catholic Education Commission, produced two Youtube videos to explain the Catholic Education's opposition to the Federal Government's proposed legislative changes to funding education, and has requested his colleagues to publicise these videos. You can view them through these links:

Mr John Mula, Director of Catholic Education Tasmania has supported the National Education Commission's initiative and has issued this press release this evening 19 June:

ANALYSIS REVEALS FUNDING CUTS TO CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Independent analysis of the Federal Government’s school funding policy has revealed Australia’s Catholic education sector is facing drastic funding cuts over the next decade. The analysis, completed by the Parliamentary Budget Office at the request of Senator David Leyonhjelm, has found that Australian Catholic schools would lose $3.1 billion in federal government funding over the next 10 years.

“This figure is based on the cumulative difference between what the Federal Government is currently proposing as compared with the provisions set down under the current Australian Education Act (2013),” said Director of Catholic Education in Tasmania John Mula.

“In the Tasmanian context, the shortfall in funding equates to $35 million over 10 years for the State’s Catholic education sector. The reality for Tasmanian Catholic schools is that 4030 students in 8 of our 38 schools will next year receive a cut in funding from their current entitlement, with 6 of those schools being the most ‘neediest’ in Catholic education. Another 1,642 students in an additional 4 schools will receive funding increases of less than 3%, which is insufficient to cover possible increasing costs in to the future.

“It would seem from this analysis that, for Tasmania at least, the Federal Government’s proposed legislation is seriously flawed. Its rhetoric around ‘needs based’ funding does not meet the reality for thousands of Tasmanian students in Catholic schools.”

Mr Mula said poor policy planning by the Federal Government, especially by ignoring educators in the development of a 10-year school education policy, has led to a shambolic political process.

“Rather than look at the significant flaws in the current model and try to fix them, Minister Birmingham is trying to negotiate his own ‘special deals’ with his colleagues and cross-benchers,” Mr Mula said.

Catholic Education Tasmania is Tasmania’s largest non-government provider of education, serving 16,000 students and their families via 38 schools and colleges.