UPDATED: Education Minister Christopher Pyne has ruled out charging rich parents who send their kids to public schools.
But Prime Minister Tony Abbott says how public schools are funded is entirely up to the states and territories.
The prime minister’s department is reported to be considering options to reform school funding including the possibility of the commonwealth taking over education and charging richer parents to use public schools.
“Charging wealthy parents for their children to attend public schools is not the government’s policy. I don’t support it,” Pyne said on Twitter.
“If the states and territories want to charge wealthy parents fees for public schools that’s a matter for them.”
He was backed by Liberal MP Ken Wyatt who told reporters he didn’t want to see a shift away from universal, free public education or reduced funding.
Other options canvassed in the federation green paper include the commonwealth withdrawing from school funding completely, or adjusting the balance of which jurisdiction contributes to which education sector.
Abbott said any question of how much parents should pay for schools was up to states and territories.
“Whether state or territory governments choose to change the way schools are funded in their states and territories is absolutely a matter for them,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“We don’t have any role at all.”
The commonwealth will give states and territories $15.7 billion for schools in 2015/16, about a third of which is for public schools.
Assistant education minister Simon Birmingham told Sky News whatever the outcome from the federation white paper process, no students or parents would be disadvantaged.
Labor says the green paper suggestion is a co-payment for education, similar to last year’s proposal for a GP co-payment.
“This is an appalling piece of public policy which Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne need to walk away from immediately,” opposition education spokesman Mark Butler told reporters.
The teachers union says if the move is implemented it would spell the end of the system as we know it.
It had been a fundamental right since the 19th century for every Australian to be able to access public schools free of charge, Australian Education Union federal president Correna Haythorpe said in a statement.
