Restoring Equity: A Blueprint for Reforming Australian School Funding

Australia's school system has become deeply stratified, with public subsidies and regulatory advantages flowing disproportionately to schools serving advantaged communities while government schools, which educate most students and most of those with high needs, remain chronically underfunded. This paper argues that this inequity is the direct product of an incoherent policy framework spanning direct funding, tax concessions, and enrolment regulation, and that recent reform leaves the underlying structural drivers unaddressed. It proposes the 'Common Framework' model, which offers non-government schools a clear choice: opt in by ceasing fees and adopting open, non-selective enrolment in return for full public funding to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard, or operate privately without public subsidy. The paper sets out draft legislation, addresses key counterarguments, and concludes that the Common Framework offers a practical, evidence-based route to a fairer and better-resourced system.