WA public schools plead for federal funding boost as ageing buildings fail growing student needs

WA’s public schools are begging for the Commonwealth to step back into funding infrastructure as principals warn ageing buildings haven’t kept pace with the needs of students or teachers.

Clifton Park Primary School principal Tanya Uren says her school has “beautiful grounds” but it was built in 1988 and doesn’t provide the kind of purpose-built facilities a changing student body needs.

They’re now teaching many more students with disabilities, mental health issues and additional learning support needs but don’t have the spaces to do that as well as they’d like to.

“We want infrastructure and buildings so that schools are places where teachers, we want to teach, and we want kids to want to come, because if they want to come, they want to learn,” Ms Uren said.

“Realistically, funding for public school buildings hasn’t kept pace with the demands and the needs, the changing needs of our students.”

Ms Uren’s dream would be to build tailored support and cultural learning spaces to lift attendance, engagement and, ultimately, student achievements.

But her budget only runs to staff and teaching programs each year.

“We don’t get the funds to build our own buildings. We wait to be told by the Education Department that there’s additional funding for upgrades,” she said.

The commonwealth used to have dedicated funding for infrastructure but this got wound up in 2017 in favour of simplified recurrent school funding.

Federal capital funding to WA schools has dropped from $10.8 million in 2018 to just $17,099 in 2024, according to analysis by the Australian Education Union.

During the period when there was a dedicated funding stream, from 2009-2017, Commonwealth money accounted for just under a third of all capital funding for WA schools; it made up 1 per cent in the years since then.

An AEU inquiry into school infrastructure will hear from teachers, the WA Education Department, local government and other key stakeholders in Perth on Tuesday about the problems and the State’s best examples of schools.

The inquiry team, led by former ACTU head Sharran Burrow, will also visit schools.

Its work will be used to inform a budget request next year and campaign ahead of the next federal election, AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said.

“We’ve got an independent and elite private school sector which is in some areas building Scottish castles and other things. And yet, for public schools, we’ve got 20,000 transportables or demountables ... and we know that there is a great need in terms of classrooms and better teaching and learning facilities,” she said.

“(It’s) not just saying fix the current infrastructure problem, but this is about an investment for the future of Australia.”

Education Minister Jason Clare said the government’s priority had been on fixing the general funding for public schools, which has come into effect this year with new deals worth $16.5 billion over the next decade.

He also pointed to the $1 billion fund to build new childcare centres, many of which are expected to be located in public schools.

“It’s not a blank cheque. It’s tied to real and practical reforms to help kids catch up, keep up and finish school,” he said.