At last the eerie silence on schools funding has ended
With a federal election looming, leaders of two political parties have now announced plans to deal with the protracted under-funding of Australia’s public schools.
Between them, Labor and the Coalition have made schools funding a toxic political issue to be avoided like the plague. But given the importance of education to this country and its future, this was never a responsible option.
Schools funding has been less politically daunting for the Greens. They were the first to throw down the gauntlet recently, accusing Labor and Liberal governments of leaving the public education system “to rot, struggling under decades of underfunding and neglect, while private schools receive a growing share of funding”.
Then, a few days later, in his address to the National Press Club, PM Albanese announced that his government has now reached agreement with all states and territories except Queensland and NSW to lift the Commonwealth contribution to public schools from 20 to 25 per cent of their Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) by 2034; and that constructive negotiations were continuing with the two remaining states.
The Greens were blunt about their political strategy. “With more Greens in Parliament, we can keep Dutton out and push Labor to act on the issues that matter to you: saving our public schools”.
Their plan for closing the funding gap includes delivering 100% school funding ‘to give every student a great public education’. This presumably means raising government recurrent funding for public schools to the level of their full SRS funding entitlement along with capital grants for facilities (including decent ventilation systems for every classroom). Their plan also includes funding to cover the abolition of public school ‘fees’ along with an $800 back-to-school payment to help with out-of-pocket costs like uniforms, technology and school supplies.
Under both........
© Pearls and Irritations
visit website