New research has found that that school funding in its current state is “politically, financially and educationally unsustainable”.

A report by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) shows public schools are in danger of even more inequity and disadvantage, as the vast majority of Government funds flow to private schools.

Abandoning progress towards the level and distribution of funding recommended by the Gonski Report would be to preserve the status quo, which as the Gonski Report showed, operates at the expense of many of those students currently undertaking their schooling in the government school sector,” the report states.

The Federal Government’s post-2017 funding plan will see Federal funding for private schools increase by $2.8bn by 2019, while the increase for public schools is just $1.5 billion.

Australian Education Union (AEU) president Correna Haythorpe issued a statement this week slamming the Government for neglecting students’ need for a “decent education”,

“This analysis shows that the Abbott Government has no interest in properly funding schools so all students can receive a decent education,” Haythorpe claimed.

She said the Government must “deliver funding based on need, not political ideology”.