Categories: News

Fix deep funding inequity for public schools

<p>On Public Education Day&comma; 24 organisations representing millions of Australian parents&comma; teachers and community members signed an open letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to fix the deep inequity in public school funding&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Federal President of the Australian Education Union&comma; Correna Haythorpe said the open letter was strong evidence of the support for proper funding for every child and every school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Together we stand to ensure that every child&comma; regardless of their background or circumstance can access a high-quality education in their local public school&comma;” Ms Haythorpe said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Public Education Day is an opportunity for Australians to celebrate the essential work carried out in our public education system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Each and every school day&comma; hundreds of thousands of principals&comma; teachers and education support staff gather in public schools to teach the overwhelming majority of Australian students&period; They do an incredible job&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;But they are working in increasingly difficult conditions created by the deep funding inequity in our education system&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>By 2023&comma; only one per cent of public schools will be funded at the minimum Schooling Resource Standard &lpar;SRS&rpar;&period; This means public schools will be deprived of much needed resources&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition&comma; public schools are experiencing booming student enrolment growth and yet the Federal Government has not provided capital infrastructure funding to meet this growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It is well within the power of the Federal Government to ensure every school has the resources required to teach every child&comma;” Ms Haythorpe said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;With properly funded public schools&comma; the difference we could make in the lives of Australian children would be profound&period; We could provide new high-quality classrooms and well-resourced libraries&comma; improved school facilities and equipment&comma; more teachers and support staff&comma; smaller class sizes and additional learning programmes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;That’s why we are calling on the Prime Minister to ensure that all schools are operating at a minimum of 100 per cent of the SRS&comma; remove the 20 per cent cap on the Commonwealth share of the SRS from the Australian Education Amendment Act&comma; remove the four per cent capital depreciation tax from state and territory SRS amounts and establish a capital fund for public schools to help meet rising enrolment growth and infrastructure needs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Fixing the deep funding inequity would be the best way Prime Minister Scott Morrison could celebrate Public Education Day&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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