Page 556 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 1990
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major component of ACT public expenditure. In this budget year schooling accounted for 24 per cent of recurrent expenditure, at an estimated cost of $222m. Our budget strategy needs to address not only the shortfall in funds granted by the Commonwealth Government, but also must continue to address the overfunding gap identified in the last Grants Commission inquiry which found school spending in the ACT to be nearly 18 per cent above the average State level in 1986-87. Although there have been reductions in schools funding since then, comparable reductions in the States mean that the ACT school system remains overfunded in comparison.
Although this does not lead of itself to the view that we should necessarily cut education, it must be considered as one of the many areas that the Government has to consider when assessing the overall overexpenditure problem in the ACT. Clearly, in the run up to the next budget we must look closely at both the overall expenditures and underlying cost structures of such a major activity.
Mr Duby: Look at the opposition benches.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, I note that, with the exception of Mr Stevenson, the opposition benches are completely and utterly deserted on this important matter of education. It is shameful.
Mr Duby: It is a disgrace.
MR HUMPHRIES: This examination, in consultation with relevant unions, will seek to identify areas of duplication or unnecessary activity which can be forgone without significantly affecting the high quality of education provided. Education systems all over Australia are facing similar structural issues. The challenge for us will be to provide a high quality education system while achieving those sorts of economies within our overall budget framework.
I want to speak now about community participation and in particular about a schools council. The public school system in the ACT originally operated as a Commonwealth statutory authority. It was managed centrally by a council of community members which provided a local government style of participation in education. The schools themselves were managed by boards whose responsibility was similar to but separate from the authority council.
In preparation for self-government the Commonwealth abolished the council element of the Schools Authority. Since that time the self-governing ACT has created a state-type Department of Education. This department is presently responsible for the public school system, the Government's responsibilities in relation to non-government schools, financial assistance by the ACT Government to the post-school institutions and the Arts.
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