(1)   Is she aware of a letter written to all school principals by the former Minister for Education, Science and Training stating that ‘it is anticipated that the maximum amount an individual school community will receive [under the Investing in Our Schools program] is $150,000 over the next four years’; if not, why not.

(2)   Has her department previously advised school principals, teachers, parents and any other members of a school community that they may (a) apply for several projects under the Investing in Our Schools program up to the $150,000 limit and (b) make such applications until the end of 2008.

(3)   Is she aware of schools that had budgeted on receiving a total of $150,000 under separate applications over three or four years.

(4)   Will she ensure that those schools identified in Part (3) that had a legitimate expectation that they would be able to apply for up to $150,000 under the Investing in Our Schools program will still be given the opportunity to do so; if so, how; if not, why not.

(1)   Yes.

(2)   Previous years’ Programme Guidelines have stated that the limit for funding in respect of any one school is $150,000. It has further been stated that this may comprise of a number of smaller applications. It has never been stated in any Programme Guidelines that schools may apply for projects up until the end of 2008. The broad intention of the Investing in Our Schools Programme in respect of distributing funding was to provide $700 million to assist state government school communities deliver small infrastructure projects. To this end, some 15,100 projects have already been approved to 6,166 (or over 90 percent) of state government school communities. This high demand from school communities led to the 2008 Programme year funding being brought forward into the 2006 Programme year. The Schools Assistance (Learning Together - Achievement Through Choice and Opportunity) Act 2004 was amended by Parliament in April 2006 to facilitate this reposition. In February 2007, the Australian Government announced a further $127 million would be made available to allow state government schools that have received grants below $100,000 or none at all to apply for funding grants. The funding limit of $100,000 as stated in the 2007 Programme Guidelines will ensure a wider distribution of this new funding.

(3)   Under the IOSP, school communities apply directly to the Australian Government for funding discrete, small infrastructure projects. Applications are submitted within the Programme Guidelines of each funding round and each application is assessed on its own merits in a competitive process that takes into account the relative needs and risks of each project applied for. It has always been made clear to schools that approval or non-approval for one project does not guarantee that any subsequent project in a later application round will be approved. It is a competitive grant programme.

(4)   See answer for Question 3, above.