By Kat Wong and Fraser Barton
A landmark agreement has been brokered between the federal government and a holdout state that will ensure every public school student will receive a fully funded education.
After months of back-and-forth, the federal government has agreed to a deal with Queensland to lift the Commonwealth’s contribution from 20 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard – an estimate of how much public funding a school requires to meet students’ needs – to 25 per cent by 2034.
The Queensland agreement will provide an extra $2.8 billion in Commonwealth money for hundreds of thousands of public school children over the next 10 years.
The Sunshine State will remove a provision that allowed the state government to claim four per cent of state school funding for indirect school costs and replace it with four per cent of recurrent funding on eligible expenses.
Federal funding will be tied to reforms that lift education standards across the country, including more individualised support for students.
“This is intergenerational reform that will make an incredible difference,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
“What we want to make sure is that every parent – when they make a decision of where their child goes to school – can have confidence that that child will receive the level of support that they deserve.
“Today will change lives because public education changes lives.”
Monday’s announcement was welcomed by the Australian Education Union, who called it a landmark arrangement.
“The signing of these agreements is a tremendous win for students, teachers, and the broader public education system,” national president Correna Haythorpe said.
Before Monday, every jurisdiction except Queensland had accepted a deal to fully fund public schools.
The federal government had struck deals with Western Australia and Tasmania in 2024 to boost its contribution to 22.5 per cent, leaving the states to increase their funding to 77.5 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard.
It also reached updated funding agreements with the ACT and the Northern Territory.
But every other state successfully held out for a bigger slice of the pie, with NSW, Victoria and South Australia coming to a deal earlier in 2025 after the Commonwealth offered to lift its share to 25 per cent – foreshadowing the Queensland deal.
“This was an opportunity too good to miss,” Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said.
“It was an opportunity to bring two levels of government together, but ultimately it’s about kids.”
Queensland’s deal, like those made with other states, is tied to reforms such as catch-up tutoring and wellbeing initiatives.
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