2024-08-14
The Greens say Labor’s new schools agreement would do nothing to reverse the decline in school performance, and would actually lock in underfunding for a decade.
Comments attributable to Greens spokesperson on Primary and Secondary Education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
“This year’s NAPLAN results are evidence yet again of the catastrophic consequences of Labor and the Liberals underfunding the public school system for decades.
“We shouldn’t sugar coat it. We are at risk of a full-blown flight of parents and kids out of a public system that is being left to rot, while money pours into the pockets of the richest private schools.
“Minister Clare talks of more testing and more checkpoints, when what we really need is more teachers, smaller class sizes, less admin and red tape, and enough funding so that all students, regardless of where they live or how wealthy their parents are, get the support they need.
“The so-called ‘Better and Fairer Schools Agreement’ doesn’t even come close to delivering that. It does nothing to fundamentally reform our outdated education model, make schools more inclusive or reverse the growing inequities between the public and private systems.
“Labor’s funding offer to the states would lock in another decade of underfunding. It would condemn another generation of public schoolkids to inequity and leave teachers trying desperately to hold things together.
“If Labor wants to genuinely act on underwhelming results, they need to quit shirking responsibility and guarantee 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard to every public school at the start of the next agreement, in January 2025. That means raising the Commonwealth share of funding to at least 25%.”