Research Papers

2024

Ending the capital funding divide in Australias schools

This report details how for over a decade the Commonwealth government has been derelict in its duty to ensure that students in Australia’s public schools have access to the buildings, and equipment and learning environments they need to thrive

2023

How school funding fails Public Schools : how to change for the better by Adam Rorris

This study looks at the extent to which current school funding agreements can deliver on the needs of all students in Australian schools.

The Australian school teaching workforce: a report based on 2021 ABS census data, prepared for the Australian Education Union by Barbara Preston

Data from the ABS Census can illuminate many aspects of the school teaching workforce that are obscure in the common collections of administrative data. The data and analyses in this report highlight a number of issues that are important for policy in areas such as teachers’ conditions and salaries, workforce planning, and school funding.

2022

Scott Morrison’s record on school funding: $6.5 billion every year in public school neglect & $10 billion in private school cash handouts by Adam Rorris

This report details thirteen critically unfair decisions in respect to school funding that the LNP government (with Scott Morrison as either Treasurer or PM) has made since 2015.

2021

Investing in Schools – Funding the Future by Adam Rorris

Public schools in Australia enrol the majority of all students and an even greater majority of students from low socio-economic backgrounds (SES). A proper needs based funding model would deliver greater investment to public schools.

2020

The schooling resource standard in Australia : impacts on public schools By Adam Rorris

The purpose of this expenditure analysis is to examine the extent to which budget allocations and financial agreements (between governments) will enable public schools to attain the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) minimum funding levels that have been negotiated between governments.

Addressing digital inclusion for all public school students

Home internet access, family income, remoteness, mobility, family type, English proficiency, disability, housing, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, and the impact of the 2019-2020 bushfires

2018

The Social make up of schools. A report prepared by Barbara Preston March 2018.

What Census data reveals about the composition of public, Catholic and Independent schools in Australia.

2017

Getting results: Gonski funding in Australian schools, Volume 2

The second report into how Gonski funding is lifting student results, profiles success at 24 schools across Australia.

2016

Research snapshot 2016 : teachers and workloads. Briefing Paper

Australian teachers are struggling under increasing workloads, which have become the key reason teachers consider leaving the profession.

WA Schools 2009-2015 : what the My School data tells us by Bernie Shepherd, August 2016

Analysis of My School shows the WA Government has delivered cuts to public schools and bigger student/staff ratios

The Precarious State of Schools Funding in Australia following the 2016 Federal Election by Jim McMorrow August 2016

How Malcolm Turnbull’s Funding Plan will end needs-based funding and hurt disadvantaged schools.

Getting results: Gonski funding in Australian schools

How Gonski funding is lifting student results at 24 schools across Australia.

Australian schooling - the price of failure and reward for success A report prepared for the AEU by Adam Rorris, April 2016

Research shows Australia would be $72 billion better off if all students left school with minimum levels of literacy and numeracy.

2015

The Capture of Public Wealth by the For-Profit VET Sector A Report prepared for the AEU by Serena Yu and Damian Oliver, Workplace Research Centre, University of Sydney Business School, January 2015

​Research shows privatisation of vocational training and TAFEs has led to a drop in quality of courses and huge taxpayer-funded profits to private providers.

2014

The 2014 Commonwealth Budget: Ending the schools funding 'unity ticket' A Report prepared for the AEU by J.F. McMorrow, June 2014

​Research shows that Tony Abbott's decision to abandon needs-based Gonski funding for schools will lead to the loss of thousands of desperately needed teachers in disadvantaged schools.

What the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook statement means for schools A Report prepared for the AEU by J.F. McMorrow, January 2014

This report calls for the Abbott Government to fully fund the Gonski reforms, warning its less than one third commitment will leave schools across the country without an adequate level of resources.