NSW threatens to delay school reform agreement until Clare agrees to funding deal

NSW Education Minister Prue Car has threatened to extend the current National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) another year in a bid to convince her federal counterpart to agree to a funding deal for the state.

The current NSRA is already overdue for renewal by a year, after federal Education Minister Jason Clare extended the agreement in 2023 to continue working on reforms that he said had not been carried out by the former Coalition government.

The agreement is a bilateral deal between federal and state and territory governments, where the latter agrees to use taxpayer dollars to enact reforms that the agreement outlines.

It became active in 2019, and was due to expire in December 2023, before it was pushed out until December 2024. Minister Car's actions could see the agreement pushed back again until December 2025.

A panel that reviewed the current NSRA said before any of its recommendations could be met, schools require full Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) funding, a calculated sum of what it costs to properly educate each public school student.

Minister Car has been vocal about Minister Clare's reluctance to cover the final few percentage points of funding to get NSW state schools to 100 per cent of the David Gonski-recommended SRS.

The federal education minister has offered to lift the Commonwealth's government school funding share from 20 per cent to 22.5 per cent, expecting the states to raise their shares to meet the 100 per cent mark.

Those extra 2.5 percentage points would cost the federal government a total of $16bn over 10 years, with $4.1bn going to NSW.

“We’re not going to sign up to a deal that is less than what we want for our kids in NSW,’’ Minister Car told The Weekend Australian.

“If that means we have to roll something over, then we have to roll something over.

“We need them to produce the 5 per cent … I’m not signing up to anything less than that.’’

Minister Clare responded by saying Western Australia was able to produce the extra funds to cover 25 per cent. It is the only state that has agreed to the deal, and the Northern Territory, which has severely underfunded schools, struck a deal that will see the Commonwealth fund its schools to 40 per cent.

Minister Car has previously cited the $1.65bn in lost funds from changes to NSW's GST cut as one reason the Commonwealth should pick up the bill. The GST allocation shift will see WA get a larger cut.

Minister Clare has been adamant his funding agreement is "not a blank cheque," tying the deal to reforms that must be carried out to secure a deal, including improving student academic outcomes and attendance.

When asked if he would endorse mandatory maths screening for students in Year 1, a reform that Prue Car has promoted, he told Sunrise to "watch this space."

"Watch this space, is what I'd say. I've offered $16bn in additional funding to the states and territories to better fund our public schools," he said.

"I want that money tied to the sort of things that are going to help kids who fall behind when they're little at primary school to catch up and to keep up, and to have more kids finish school.

"Part of that is identifying kids early who are falling behind and making sure that we provide them with extra support.

"This idea of a numeracy check comes out of a report that I commissioned a bit over a year ago. It's one of the recommendations about what we tie this money to. So, I'd say, watch this space."

The Queensland, Victorian and South Australian education ministers have backed Ms Car's efforts to demand more funding from the Commonwealth.

Federal opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the ministers' disagreement was a "failure of leadership" by Mr Clare.

“All [he] has delivered is a full-blown school funding war with the majority of states,’’ she said.

“Australian students and their families are paying the price.

“The Albanese government’s promise to deliver ‘full and fair funding’ to government schools is a mess of its own making, given it is the states and territories, not the commonwealth, which are responsible for the funding shortfall.’’

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