From the President

What we’re asking for public education in WA

By Pat Byrne President

The upcoming state election is critical for public education in WA. Irrespective of which party is in office, our goal must be to ensure that public education is funded properly and is accessible to all students, no matter where in WA they choose to live.

This is even more important given the crucial role public education will continue to have in underpinning Western Australia’s economic recovery – not just in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19, but beyond that.

Ahead of the state election the SSTUWA has released a paper with a series of asks for the political parties.

It begins, unsurprisingly, with the question of salaries.

Educators recognised the need for restraint when the current Labor government came to power. We were not happy but, along with the whole of the WA public sector, educators did their bit and accepted the flat $1,000 pay rise per year.

In the first round, the 2017 agreements, any negotiated changes were required to be cost neutral. This changed in the second round where some extra costs were allowed.

We were told the policy was for four years. Now COVID-19 has changed everything – and once again it is public servants asked to sacrifice pay rises.

In Queensland public sector pay rises have been deferred for six months, even for pay rises that have been negotiated in registered agreements. However, they have a commitment from their government to pay the agreed pay rises from the date of deferral.

In New South Wales, while there is no wage freeze, their Industrial Relations Commission has set pay rises for nurses and public servants at 0.3 per cent.

Teachers have had the 2.5 per cent already agreed to in an EBA simply cancelled, with a new wages policy fixed at 1.5 per cent.

The NT government has learnt from WA and set its future pay rises at $1,000 per annum. Victoria, on the other hand, will pay at around three per cent.

In WA all public sector employees are yet again being asked to accept $1,000 per year for the first two years of a re-elected McGowan Government – followed by a review and potential adjustment for the second two years of government.

The union believes that this will hinder, rather than stimulate economic growth in WA, and will further distort wage relativities and see permanent reductions in superannuation growth. It is quite clear from many pieces of research that suppressing public sector pay has a negative effect on private sector pay as well. This is especially the case in private sector areas which are closely related to the public sector – private school teachers for example, many kinds of health workers, childcare workers, VET employees, to name a few, meaning that low wage growth will continue to be experienced much more widely than only in the public sector.

This has a flow on effect in depressing the amount of money being spent in the community.

It also runs the risk, if WA is indeed returning to a boom economy, of teachers leaving the profession to work in more profitable private industries and exacerbating existing shortages. It will also act as a major disincentive for prospective teacher education students.

The SSTUWA is calling for a return to percentage-based wage increases and genuinely negotiated outcomes through bargaining processes.

In addition to wages, the SSTUWA will also be asking for a number of other things in the lead up to the election.

A guarantee of the state’s SRS component

The union is seeking a written commitment from the major parties guaranteeing they will provide a minimum 85 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) for Western Australian schools.

The current funding model adopted by federal government legislates that the federal government will contribute 20 per cent of the cost of the SRS for public school students and 80 per cent of the SRS cost for private school students, while state governments must contribute at least 75 per cent of the total SRS cost for public school students.

The bi-lateral agreements, between each state/territory government and the federal government, specify how much money state governments must contribute to private schools.

The WA agreement sees the private school share drop from 26.30 per cent in 2018 to 20 per cent in 2023. That’s a good thing.

However, the WA agreement also specifically states that the WA government retains the flexibility to fund nongovernment schools above the minimum requirements for all or part of the term of the agreement.

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In addition to this, up to four per cent of the total SRS for the government sector each year can include (at the state’s full discretion) non-recurrent costs.

In other words, capital depreciation such as direct school transport and the costs of the education standards authority, the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA).

SCSA provides services across the board to the private sector as well. However, they are charged as expenses to the public sector only.

The majority of the four per cent is absorbed by the capital depreciation.

This means that the state government can reduce its SRS component by four per cent for public schools. This does not apply to private schools. They get the full SRS.

This four per cent alone means approximately $650 per student per year in WA. It means more than $1,200 per student in the NT.

By agreement we have a situation whereby all public school systems, except for the ACT, will be funded at somewhere between five and 20 per cent below the minimum SRS.

At the same time all private school systems, except the NT, by 2022 will be funded greater than 100 per cent of SRS.

This is public funding. This is on top of fees and charges.

This extraordinary situation is hidden from the public discourse. When you explain this to people, quite frankly they don’t believe it. It is beyond belief that we have a legislative funding system that says it is okay to fund public schools below the minimum SRS requirement.

Even worse, while only the minimum funding component is mandated, there is no hindrance to the government paying above 75 per cent.

In WA this is exactly what we were doing – paying more than 75 per cent because of the additional costs incurred in WA due to the size of the state and the small population.

However, since the WA bi-lateral agreement was signed, WA is now the only jurisdiction in Australia that is using the bi-lateral agreement to cut the state government’s share of funding. This is masked by the message that government is spending more dollars than ever. That is true. However, that is about increased student enrolments, which in the public sector are increasing rapidly. It is the percentage cut to the SRS, which is the figure that we have to keep focusing on.

Over the period of the bi-lateral agreement 2018-2023, WA public schools will lose approximately $1.9 billion.

We urgently need the state government to stand up for public education by declaring unequivocally that it will return to funding public schools at 85 per cent of their SRS – not to continue with its proposed cuts that will take it down to 75 per cent of SRS.

Without this commitment, make no mistake, the impact on public education will be catastrophic. In regional and remote areas, the consequences will be enormous. While this was already the case pre-COVID-19, the pandemic has made it much worse.

This is not a new campaign for us – we’ve gone through these figures before. I cannot emphasise enough how important this issue is for us – us as a union but also for us caring for students in our schools.

Safety in schools

The SSTUWA will seek a written commitment that the next state government will provide the necessary additional funding to support the extension of the 10-point plan as part of making schools safer.

Schools IT

The union will ask for pledges to specifically address the imbalance and inequities caused by lack of access of some students (and staff) to fast internet and required devices. One of the consequences of the pandemic has been to highlight the already existing inequities between private and state education as well as between city and regional schools.

Revitalising remote and regional education

The SSTUWA will seek specific commitments to address core issues in remote and regional education, to restore support to schools through the employment of local people in bringing about community driven improvements in attendance and performance as part of a state-wide commitment to closing the gap. This will include addressing the needs of district high schools which for some years now have been in steady decline – to the point where most of them are now Level 3 schools rather than Levels 5 and 6. This, of course has a major effect on the school’s capacity to guarantee a broad curriculum, which in turn affects enrolment.

TAFE

To its credit, the state government is positioning TAFE as the pre-eminent, crucial provider of COVID-19 recovery skills and training. However, without a broader position addressing the whole issue of the market model in TAFE, as well as funding, this risks being yet another a short term response with no genuine structural reform.

The union will ask for guarantees to maintain all fee free and reduced fee TAFE courses, with others added to aid in WA’s economic recovery.

We will also seek a commitment that TAFE will be the pre-eminent provider of VET in schools as well as a broadening of the depiction of TAFE beyond traditional trades to embrace art, culture and performance, with an expansion of artsbased courses to allow access for those who cannot afford university fees.