Submission to the ACT Public School System Resourcing Review

Submission to the ACT Government School Budget Review

The ACT Alliance for Evidence-Based Education (ACTAEBE) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the ACT Government’s review of the public school resourcing model. ACTAEBE understands that ACT public schools face significant pressures as they respond to student needs and this submission therefore focuses on what funding is appropriated towards and how it is best structured and allocated.

The Review is charged with determining whether ACT schools have sufficient resources, whether those resources are being allocated appropriately, and whether the way in which the Education Directorate structures central and school-level support is appropriate. Within that context, ACTAEBE focuses on four interrelated areas:

  1. Disability funding and the Schooling Resource Standard

  2. Consistent assessment and intervention

  3. Funding, pace and delivery of Strong Foundations

  4. Transparency, accountability and partnerships

ACTAEBE welcomes the ACT Government’s recent commitment to an explicitly evidence-informed approach to literacy and numeracy and is excited that Strong Foundations and related initiatives set out a clearer, more consistent pathway for improving outcomes across the system. At the same time, ACTAEBE is concerned that current funding settings and implementation decisions by the Education Directorate do not yet fully reflect this direction, particularly in relation to disability support, universal screening and the scale of investment required to deliver Strong Foundations in every school, risking a situation in which the Directorate does not deliver on the Government’s commitments.

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