The education budget report card: ‘F’ for Fail

You could be forgiven for thinking that education was left largely untouched in Tuesday’s federal budget. In Joe Hockey’s speech, education was only mentioned twice and simply in terms of higher education as a valuable service export. The focus was almost entirely on child care, small business and infrastructure. This was contrasted with last night’s budget reply by Bill Shorten, where the emphasis was on a future defined by science, technology, education and innovation. Christopher Pyne’s absence from the post-budget headlines is notable, given the central placement of his twice-failed higher education reform agenda in last year’s budget. It is only when digging into the Department of Education and Training’s budget statements that the finer details on education become clear. And the picture overall is not a particularly good one for the future of education in Australia. \n \nIn brief: schools are facing a A$30 billion funding black hole from 2018; there is continued uncertainty for current and future university students; and there will be far-reaching impacts of further broad cuts to research spending and infrastructure. \n