THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COMMONWEALTH GRANTS COMMISSION FOR EDUCATION POLICY‐MAKING IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA Available to Purchase

This case study investigates the contention that the Commonwealth Grants Commission, through the methods and procedures it employed to determine the special grants it recommended for payment to Western Australia, was influential in education policy formulation in that State. Although certain benefits were gained for education in relation to the level of finance expended on it, the State surrendered a considerable degree of its control over the direction which educational expenditure could have taken because it depended on the special grants to balance its budget during its period of claimancy.