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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 513 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Voluntary contributions have become a necessity because our public education system is not being funded adequately to meet the emerging needs. I noticed, as no doubt other members have, that there were quite a number of letters to the paper on the subject at the beginning of this academic year in the schools, and I think there is a very broad feeling of disquiet in the community about what is happening to our public education system. It is very much looking as if it is becoming a user-pays system, and we have seen the results of that in other countries where it has occurred.

Australia has one of the lowest expenditures on education in the OECD. The extension of school-based management into financial management increases the likelihood of schools bidding for outside funding, from corporate sources as well as from parents. I did ask for more details on sponsorship and corporate involvement in schools in the Estimates Committee. We have since been assured that there will be some monitoring of this, although I am still not happy with the degree of information that is going to be given to members of this place. I think we need to be given more than the amount of money that is given and by whom. What we want to see very clearly is what is given in exchange for that sponsorship and that corporate involvement in a school. While I acknowledge that there are some guidelines for sponsorship, I am still not happy that we are going to get enough information here about what exactly are the real implications and the reality of that sponsorship in terms of the identity of the school.

The schools equity fund has come into being since the initial debate, and that was the most substantial aspect of the second response. I note, although I have not yet read the response in great detail, that the schools equity fund is also mentioned as a major initiative in the Government statement on equity implications of school-based management which I requested through a motion tabled earlier last week. It is not much money, and there is some concern about how it is going to be used, but establishing the fund is at least a start in the right direction, and this is something that has been acknowledged by the key stakeholders. Any decisions about how the money is allocated need to be made in close consultation with the relevant stakeholders.

I am not sure whether a final decision has been made on how these funds will be allocated, and I would be interested in hearing from the Minister on where we are up to in this process. I know that the department initially said that they would be dividing the money among about 16 to 18 schools. At the moment, normally about two schools receive the Commonwealth disadvantaged schools dollars to address underlying issues of disadvantage. There are pockets of disadvantage across the school system, and I acknowledge that it is not just schools that are in so-called disadvantaged areas which may require assistance. Even in schools in relatively well-off areas there are students who are unable to participate fully in school activities because of socioeconomic reasons, and we may well need other mechanisms to deal with this; but we have to think very carefully about how this schools equity fund is used. The concern is that we may no longer be addressing underlying issues of disadvantage if the resources are fragmented across so many schools.

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