The Morrison Government’s funding deal for Catholic and independent schools fails to address the urgent needs of public school students in NSW.
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NSW Teachers Federation President Maurie Mulheron said the Federal Government’s $4.6 billion increase to private school funding was an attempt to buy votes ahead of the next Federal election.
“This is inequitable, unfair and a corrupt funding model,” Mr Mulheron said.
“We support the response of NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes who is reported today to have rejected the latest Morrison plan as failing to ‘treat every student and every school with fairness’.”
“Mr Stokes knows that what is at stake here is adequate funding for our public schools to meet the needs of every student,” Mr Mulheron said.
“When Rob Stokes says this funding deal is grossly unfair to public school students, Scott Morrison ought to be taking notice.”
“The Federal Government has ripped billions of dollars from our public schools. We want public school students to have smaller class sizes, more one-on-one support and additional teachers and support staff.”
“But Scott Morrison and Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan are ignoring the needs of public schools, public school students and their teachers.”
“This funding deal fails to provide a single additional dollar for students in public schools. It is totally unacceptable to fund private schools while failing to meet the needs of public school students.”
Mr Mulheron said teachers in public schools taught 74% of children in outer regional areas, 77.5% of children in remote areas and 88% in very remote areas.
Public schools have always done the heavy lifting and, as a consequence have the greatest need for additional resources.
“How can Scott Morrison think this latest funding model is fair to the majority of Australian children who attend public schools, given they won’t receive a single dollar of additional funding?”
Mr Mulheron said public school teachers and parents know school funding is a major election issue and are determined to fight this every day right up until the next election.
“Our ‘Fair Funding Now’ campaign will be making sure voters in every marginal seat knows what Scott Morrison thinks about public school funding and how this deal will impact on the education of their children.”
