Reports that NSW public schools will have their budgets slashed by up to $148 million at first glance risks making a mockery of Premier Chris Minns’ election campaign promise that improving public education would be a priority for his government.

Public schools are having their budgets cut by up to $148m. Credit: Simon Letch

Minns, the son of a primary school teacher who became principal of two public schools in Sydney, said focusing on public education was in Labor’s DNA. It started well last September when a once-in-a-generation deal was struck to make NSW public school teachers the highest paid in the country.

But the shine went off this week. Education Department Secretary Murat Dizdar wrote to principals to announce that public schools would have their budgets cut by 1.25 per cent this year. In addition, thousands of deputy and assistant principals will be forced back into classroom teaching roles to counter the chronic shortages of teachers.

“While overall funding remains at record levels, to reflect the reduction in enrolments, address teacher shortages and better manage above centrally funded positions across the state, flexible funding for most schools will be reduced this year,” Dizdar said.

Blame for the shortage is being sheeted home to the previous Coalition government’s Local Schools, Local Decisions policy under which the bulk of NSW’s multibillion-dollar schools budget was taken from the department and given to principals. One result was the creation of thousands of temporary non-teaching executive roles which put many of our most experienced teachers behind desks.

The public system’s problems are exacerbated by many parents opting to send children to private schools. Public school student numbers have declined since 2019, with about 25,000 fewer enrolled last year compared with before the pandemic. The proportion of pupils in state schools fell to 62.9 per cent last year, the lowest share in two decades of reporting.

The government appears to have got itself into a cleft stick dealing with declines in enrolments and teachers, while attempting to maintain standards in the face of growth in student numbers from immigration.

The government denies the flight to the private system is related to the latest budget cuts. Rather, it said the reset was necessary because school budgets were maintained and increased over the past four years despite falling enrolments, due to the pandemic and natural disasters. Adding to the pain to come for the government, those temporary supplement measures, in place since 2019, will also begin to be phased out from next term.