Cobbold said the funding model for public schools was further undermined in 2017, when the Turnbull government introduced an “arbitrary” commonwealth funding cap of 20% for public schools, with the remainder to be covered by state governments. For non-government schools, the caps are the reverse.

The president of the Australian Education Union, Correna Haythorpe, said putting the onus on the states to implement 80% of funding failed to adhere to the Gonski review’s recommendation that the commonwealth should put in more, given its greater capacity to raise revenue.

Gah. This is infuriating.

But also, putting the blame entirely on the Commonwealth is a bit unfair here. With states increasing public school funding by tiny amounts (the best a state did was just 22.16%), with one state actually funding schools 5.6% less (and one territory decreasing by even more than that) and the states averaging about 10%, I think the State Governments deserve a healthy heaping of blame for themselves, too.