Funding and regulating schools in our federation is wildly duplicative and complicated.

I don’t wish to rain on the parade celebrating the path to full public education funding as the panacea, but it may be too early to relinquish our raincoats.

Despite promises of equity and excellence articulated in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration and the commitments outlined in the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA) 2025-2034, the growing socioeconomic segregation in our school system remains a reminder of policy shortfalls to date. Further, full funding will not land until 2034 and may be risked at any point by a change in government, as occurred following Tony Abbott’s election.

With Prime Minister Anthony Albanese now commanding a strong majority, there is an opportunity to lead the structural reform required to address systemic inequities and secure the future of Australian schooling.

Structural failure

For decades, Australia has tolerated, and at times actively exacerbated, the divide between public and private schools. This dual system has entrenched inequality in educational outcomes, with research by Professor Michele Bruniges and the Paul Ramsay Foundation showing increasing concentrations of disadvantage in many schools, predominantly public.

The evidence is clear: school segregation is a key driver of educational inequity in Australia. Research by Bonnor and Shepherd (2016) highlights how socioeconomic stratification, compounded by policies promoting school choice, has concentrated disadvantage in........

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