Education and Early Childhood Minister Yvette Berry says the panel will report by May next year. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
Education and Early Childhood Minister Yvette Berry has announced an Expert Panel to conduct the promised review of ACT public school resourcing after revelations that 84 per cent of ACT public schools are over budget or will be by the end of the year.
The budget crisis revealed in July requires $5.4 million in immediate savings and $25.4 million over four years.
Ms Berry said the ACT Public School System Resourcing Review would recommend how to most effectively and efficiently use the provided school funding.
“The Expert Panel will explore the best model of central support services for schools given our small jurisdiction of soon-to-be 93 schools,” she said.
The Education Directorate’s 2024-25 Annual Report says that it overshot its budget by $44.7 million, or 46.0 per cent higher than the original budget deficit of $97.1 million, to record an operating deficit of $141.8 million.
It spent $1180.1 million on services, $35.7 million or 3.1 per cent higher than the original budget of $1144.4 million.
The previous financial year, its net spend increased by $86.3 million or 7.9 per cent.
In both instances, the Directorate blamed higher employee expenses on the backfill of frontline staff and provision of additional student supports, and an increase in how annual leave and long service leave entitlements were calculated.
Ms Berry said the ACT continued to be the only jurisdiction to fund public schools not just up to, but above, the national School Resourcing Standard.
“The review will help us understand how we can achieve equitable resourcing across the ACT public school system to make sure all students are well supported,” Minister Berry said.
Budget planning work carried out with schools in Term 3 would help inform this work.
The members of the System Resourcing Review are:
- Professor Ken Smith (Chair) – a senior public service leader with more than 40 years’ experience, including serving as head of Queensland’s Department of Education and as CEO and Dean of ANZSOG. He is Professor of Practice at QUT.
- Julie Sonnemann – an economist and former Deputy Program Director and School Education Fellow at the Grattan Institute and Lead Education Policy Expert at Impact Economics & Policy.
- Associate Professor Anna Hogan – a former secondary school teacher and now ARC research fellow at QUT’s School of Education, with research interests in education policy and practice. She is the lead editor of the Journal of Education Policy and an Associate Editor of the Australian Educational Researcher.
- Hayley McQuire – a Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman and co-founder and CEO of the National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition. She is also co-chair of Learning Creates Australia, an independent non-profit dedicated to removing structural barriers that compound education inequality.
- Dr Bill Maiden – a retired public school principal, former deputy chair of the ACT Non-Government Schools Education Council and former chair of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute Board and Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of Canberra.
The Expert Panel will engage with stakeholders through an advisory group comprising representatives from unions, ACT Parents, ACT Principals Association, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body, Association of School Business Managers ACT and ACT Government directorates.
The Expert Panel’s report and the Government’s response will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly by May 2026.
