Spatial Disparities and Subsidiarity in Centralized Federalism: Australia’s School System

Abstract

Australia is imbalanced geographically and politically: its growth is extremely concentrated in four major city-regions that stand in contrast to sparsely populated, stagnant rural areas. Its political power is exceptionally centralized, consisting of vertical fiscal imbalance between the Commonwealth and the states, and particularly weak local governments. This study focuses on spatial disparities in school achievements and resources, and the effectiveness of policies to alleviate them, in this context of Australian centralized federalism. Based on an analysis of data on finance and achievements in the NAPLAN tests in Australian schools, the study confirms that Australia implements an effective nationwide redistributive policy that refers to remoteness, but fails to eliminate spatial differences in student achievement. Vertical political imbalance of Australia’s federalism seems to work in favor of consistent needs-based redistribution, retained despite the variety of intermediary bodies and the plurality of private providers, in addition to the states. This plurality partly retains principles of subsidiarity, despite exclusion of local government from school education.