The Abbott government plans to
review all aspects of Labor's education funding reforms, amid
revelations Kevin Rudd never signed off on the $1.6 billion deal with
the Catholic education sector, reports The Australian.
'Everything needs to be examined fresh, because the model that Labor
came up with is a shambles and quite unimplementable,' Education
Minister Christopher Pyne said.
National Catholic Education Commission executive director Ross Fox
confirmed a legal agreement for the school funding reforms still needed
to be signed.
Speaking to The Australian, he said there were some 'very
good things' about the Better Schools reforms put in place by Labor, but
he said Catholic schools would welcome any move to improve the funding
model.
'The best feature of the new arrangements are the ability of the most
needy and disadvantages students to be supported with funding
irrespective of the school they attend,' Mr Fox said. But he said there
was nevertheless, 'an opportunity to streamline some of the things
relating to reporting.'
Mr Pyne criticised the former government's overhaul of the school
funding system, describing it as complicated, devoid of transparency and
'much worse' than the Howard government's socio-economic status-based
funding model it replaced. 'We are going back to the drawing board
because we don't have any choice,' he said.
Mr Pyne's remarks are set to escalate accusations from Labor that
Tony Abbott is breaking the pre-election promise he made when he said
there was 'no difference' between he and Mr Rudd on school funding.