DELAYS AND CHANGES TO SCHOOL FUNDING IMPACT PARENT FEES AND FAMILY BUDGETS 

PRESS RELEASE – APRIL 4, 2017

The Australian Parents Council is very frustrated about the lack of clear, timely information informing schools of what their funding will be post 2017.

‘The current funding model expires at the end of this year and to be in April with no clearer details on what schools will receive as funding is extremely concerning.

‘Parents making a decision to send their children to non-government schools (Catholic and Independent) require forward planning for many years and is a financial decision parents don’t take lightly. Changes to funding have a direct impact on family budgets with decreases in school funding usually equating to higher fees.’ 

‘Schools need time to plan budgets and resourcing, parents need time to plan family budgets and commitments and the current timeframe does not enable anyone transparency for next year let alone years to come on what the future holds for the education of their students.’ Shelley Hill, former Australian Parents Council President.

The Australian Parents Council is also concerned about the growing trend of Governments (State and Federal) passing on technology costs to all Australian parents as is the case with the ever increasing number of schools going BYOD.

‘BYOD is becoming a re-current cost for parents in both Government and non-government schools throughout Australia.

 If technology and digital literacy is a requirement of education and now even used for tests such as Naplan online, a coherent approach and allocated funding for technology needs to be decided upon alongside school funding. Merely passing on the costs to parents is not the answer.‘  Shelley Hill, former Australian Parents Council President.

APC will be launching a national conversation #parentech – parenting in the digital age that hopes to bring all Australian parents together to discuss, understand and build useable solutions for parenting in the digital age.

 For media interviews: Shelley Hill, former Australian Parents Council President.