2017-05-02
Schools funding in Australia needs to be reformed to reflect a genuine needs based model, but that can’t be done by cutting funding across the country, the Australian Greens have said in response to today’s announcement from the government.
“We'll look at the detail of this announcement, but what we know is that Australia’s school funding system is broken,” the Greens’ education spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
“It's time our children's education was prioritised in Australia. It’s a sad reality that many of our kids are being left behind.
“What we need is a properly funded, transparent and fair education system that supports high quality teachers and gets results. Simply funnelling billions of dollars into a broken model won’t achieve that.
“Genuine needs based funding is essential and, yes, that means wealthy private schools have to take a haircut. Giving millions of dollars to a wealthy private school so that they can build yet another swimming pool doesn’t do any good for the children who need the most support.
“We have to fund our schools properly and fairly because every child deserves a good education, no matter what their postcode is or how rich their parents are.
“The current funding model is flawed, but making cuts to our schools should never be used as a budget savings measure.
“We're up for the hard work of fixing our education system. Our kids are being left behind and it's time us pollies got on and fixed it for good.”
Media Contact: Amy Moran 0427 604 760