Education Directorate director-general Jo Wood said specialist schools knew their bottom lines wouldn’t be changing. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
The ACT Government says Canberra’s specialist schools will not have their budgets cut despite figures showing multimillion-dollar reductions under the new school budgeting model.
Figures reported today suggest Malkara Specialist School would lose more than $2.8 million, Black Mountain School more than $3 million, Cranleigh School more than $1.7 million and The Woden School more than $1.6 million from their 2026-27 budgets.
But Education Directorate director-general Jo Wood said those figures represented the schools’ Student Resource Allocation (SRA), not their total funding.
She said there shouldn’t be any confusion about what specialist schools were receiving.
“We’re communicating directly with specialist schools – including in writing – so I believe our special school principals do understand that the SRA [student resource allocation] isn’t their funding, it’s SRA plus additional funding based on their needs,” she said.
“We estimate that special schools, across the four, will have an additional $7 million beyond their SRA for 2027.”
The clarification comes as the ACT Government faces growing criticism over the rollout of a new funding model for public schools, with principals, parents and the Opposition questioning what the changes will mean for staffing and services.
The ACT’s public schools operated under an autonomous model, meaning each institution controlled its budgets and other administrative tasks.
But an independent review into public school resourcing called for a centralised system to ease administrative burdens, avoid duplication, save time and money, and achieve a fairer distribution of staff and resources.
This includes deciding budgets through School Resource Allocation funding plus adjustment-based resourcing funding for students with extra needs.
Education Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith previously said overall public school funding had been boosted by 7.3 per cent since 2025-26, and stated 43 schools had draft funding within the plus-or-minus 5 per cent variance, 31 would see a more than 5 per cent increase, and 18 will lose more than 5 per cent of their previous budgets.
On Wednesday (23 September), she said the government had been clear from the start that the SRA model wouldn’t be applied to specialist schools.
“There was a separate conversation around specialist schools to ensure that they are not going to lose funding from the 26-27 school year, so that absolutely needs to be clear,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
“We recognise that specialist schools are in a different situation and that the the student resourcing allocation model doesn’t really work for those schools when it comes to their budgets.”
Ms Stephen-Smith was also adamant that the budgets presented to the ACT’s public school principals weren’t set in stone, and the government was willing to talk.
“I recognise that conversation’s been really difficult and that communication probably could have been better. Timelines were very, very tight for principals.
“It’s been a complex process; it’s the first time that we’ve done school budgets in this way, and so we’ve learnt through the process as well.
“We’re nowhere near the end of that process yet.”
Shadow Education Minister Elizabeth Lee wants to know exactly what school services and support will change under the new public schools funding model. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Shadow Education Minister Elizabeth Lee didn’t believe that much more tweaking could be done to the draft budgets.
“[Ms Stephen-Smith] might be talking about the fact that the budgets aren’t finalised [but] what are we doing this week in the chamber? We are literally debating the budget,” she said.
“Schools received their budgets on the 25th of August. It’s been a month, so it’s all good for her to say that she’s been talking to schools and she’ll talk to them about what’s happening, but the principals and the teachers and parents have told us that they have no more clarity a month on.”
Despite what’s being said at a political level, public school families remain confused about how the changes will affect their school.
ACT Parents executive officer Veronica Elliott said parents and carers understood the need for more equity across the system, but it wasn’t clear whether funding was really going where it’s needed most.
“For school communities, they’ve got lots of questions. They want to be able to see how their school compares across the system, what are the funding differences, why are some schools getting more money than others, and I think at this stage that’s still a bit unclear,” she said.
“We’re concerned that principals are having to make decisions now … when the system hasn’t really decided what should be a core education provision.
“We’re potentially putting the cart before the horse.”
Ms Elliott said regardless of whether a school was losing or gaining money, the justifications needed to be made public.
“It’s on the government to show that actually what they’re putting forward does actually send the money where it is most needed,” she said.
Canberra’s public schools will be shut until 10.30 am on Thursday, 24 September, due to industrial action.
Original Article published by Claire Fenwicke on Region Canberra.
