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April 23rd, 2013 
Peter Nolan NSW has become the first of the states and territories to sign up to the federal government’s education funding package, marking what Prime Minister Julia Gillard described as an “historic day”.
“This will be remembered as the day our nation reached out to seize the opportunity of the biggest improvement agenda for our schools in 40 years,” Ms Gillard told reporters on Tuesday, moments after she signed the reform deal with NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell.
“I believe, following in the footsteps of NSW, we will see more states and territories seriously consider standing for improved schools.”
Federal Labor has given the states and territories until June 30 to agree to a two-for-one funding arrangement that would deliver $14.5 billion in funding for schools.
She said the deal signed in Sydney on Tuesday would deliver an extra $4300 on average for every schoolchild in NSW from next year.
It included a promise from NSW to index its school spending at three per cent annually from 2016.
Overall, NSW schools will get $5 billion over six years, including $3.27 billion from the commonwealth.
Mr O’Farrell said cabinet had needed to make some “tough” choices when it signed off on the state’s $1.7 billion contribution on Monday.
The money would come from vocational and educational reforms, including to the state’s TAFE system, and by delaying tax reforms and the introduction of efficiency dividends for business.
“What we’ve done now, though, is to prioritise education to ensure that the $1.7 billion required of us under this deal can and will be found,” he told reporters.
Mr O’Farrell said other first ministers might follow his lead, noting only the Northern Territory and Western Australia had indicated they were “positively opposed” to the proposal at Friday’s Council of Australian Government meetings.
Ms Gillard said beyond offering a bigger pot of money, the deal would cater better to children with special needs and those in regional areas and top teachers would be rewarded with $100,000 salaries for staying in the classroom.
“No child will be left behind and no school will be left behind,” she said.
Disability advocate and Sydney mother-of-two Jane Salmon said the Gonski funding plan offered a “path to fairness”.
“Gonski is the way forward for more equitable education,” said Ms Salmon, whose two boys have autism.
But she said any credible reform roll-out in NSW would need to include the reinstatement of classroom supports, like teachers’ aides, for students with disabilities.
NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson backed Tuesday’s agreement but said cuts made by the state government to fund the reforms would come under scrutiny.
“Obviously, how this will be paid for will be revealed in the budget, and we’ll be looking very closely at that, but today is a very pleasing and historic day for NSW and education in this state,” he told reporters in Sydney.
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