Victorian audit of private schools misses the big picture

Acting Auditor-General Peter Frost told the media of 'limited assurance that (Victorian government) grants are used for their intended purpose'.

Let me assure both Mr Frost, and the now departed Mr Doyle, that they have nothing to fear. A proper investigation would have told them that.

Our funding models conform and are highly transparent and accountable to government, and our commitment to disadvantaged students and schools is second to none.

Catholic schools allocate money over and above the state school system to disadvantaged students by directly funding needs including students with disabilities, small schools, regional schools, refugee students, new arrivals, VET and VCAL. And our disadvantaged students return better results.

The flexibility to redistribute funds and the amazing capacity of our school principals to provide for the greater needs of others is what makes Catholic education great. A point endorsed in the Gonski review.

Our funding redistribution model ensures the small number of high-fee Catholic schools receive much less total-government-funds per student than similar state government operated schools that, by design, enrol only high achieving students from well off families.

I feel I must also stand up for all schools by explaining that VAGO recommendations for even closer financial scrutiny are without justification, or a basic understanding of the education system.

VAGO expects our schools to separately record how they spend the funding received from each of their income sources. Nowhere in Australia, including in Victorian state schools, is there a requirement to do this.

It is inconceivable that there could be such differentiation in reporting between the schooling sectors, so to ask all schools to meet this sort of onerous financial reporting would simply burden principals with more red tape and divert even more of their resources away from classrooms.

We want to spend more money on students, not accountants.

In the interest of those students, Catholic Education Commission Victoria will work with the Victorian Education Department to review the VAGO report and identify any constructive recommendations that can be of actual benefit.

In the meantime, I continue to wonder if VAGO will soon launch an audit into the use of Commonwealth funds in state schools. Just like Victorian government money in Catholic education, the percentage of federal government funds in the overall state government school pool is low so the scope would probably be too narrow.