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Australia has a precious opportunity to send more money to disadvantaged school students and end the nation’s long and toxic funding wars.

The Commonwealth Government’s ‘Gonski 2.0’ plan, given legislative form in the 2017 Amendment to the Education Act, charts a better, faster and more affordable route to needs-based funding than the existing the 2013 legislation. Under the 2017 Amendment, the most underfunded schools will be better off, the most overfunded schools will be brought back into line, and Commonwealth funding will be more consistent across the states and territories.

But Gonski 2.0 is not perfect. In this submission to the Senate Inquiry, School Education Program Director Pete Goss and Fellow Julie Sonnemann recommend six changes to enhance the Government plan.

“Australia cannot afford to wait for a perfect model,” Pete Goss says. “The 2017 Amendment should be improved and then embraced by Parliament. With the specific changes we propose, the new approach can deliver needs-based funding for every school by 2023, well before the Coalition’s timeframe of 2027, and have the state governments on board too.”