- Published:
- Wednesday 4 May 2016
Last night’s Federal Budget was a bitter pill to swallow for Victorian students and their families.
At my request, the Department of Education has undertaken an analysis to outline the impact of the Turnbull Government’s cuts to education announced in this Budget, including its shameful decision to walk away from the Gonski agreement.
That analysis shows Victorian schools will be almost $1 billion worse off in 2018 and 2019, and every single year beyond that.
Victorians won’t be fooled: a slight increase to indexation with absolutely no additional needs based funding is a broken promise.
The measly amount of money put on the table for schools also has strings attached, with conditions like performance pay for teachers that the Andrews Labor Government will not support – because evidence shows it simply does not work.
In addition they have also cut funding to school chaplains, 4 year-old kinder and made further cuts to skills and training.
The analysis has broken down the impact of the Turnbull Government’s cuts to individual Victorian schools, for example:
- Northern Bay P-12 – up to $4.1 million worse off
- Dandenong High School – up to $3.3 million worse off
- Ballarat Specialist School – up to $1.8 million worse off
- Bendigo Senior Secondary – up to $1.7 million worse off
Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party are short-changing Victorian students by walking away from Gonski.
It doesn’t matter which way the Liberal Party tries to spin it, there can be no innovation without a strong school system.