FULLY FUND OUR SCHOOLS
Every child deserves a great public education, no matter where they live or how much their parents earn.
Labor has spent decades neglecting our public schools.
Too many classrooms across Victoria are deteriorating and not getting the repairs they need because Labor’s turned essential upgrades into a political lottery for marginal seats.
Parents shouldn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars and put on sausage sizzles just so their kids' school can afford the basics.
The Greens want to fully fund our schools and make them genuinely free. We want to improve teachers' conditions and establish an independent authority to make sure upgrades go to the schools that need them most, not just to Labor’s marginal seats.
Explore our plan for Education
- Fully funded schools
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The Greens believe all government schools should be funded to the full amount recommended by the Gonski review.
- Genuinely free schools
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The Greens believe public education should be genuinely free, and should not need to seek so-called “voluntary” contributions from parents.
Increasingly, parents are being asked to cover the cost of what is supposedly free education, amounting to average $620 per year towards each child’s public school education.
Public schools shouldn’t be forced to rely on school fetes and sausage sizzles to top up insufficient funding.
- Better pay and conditions for teachers
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Teachers and education support staff have just achieved a long-deserved pay rise they were told was not possible.
But the fight for better working conditions continues.
The Greens will continue to push for things like fewer face-to-face teaching hours (so staff have the preparation time they need) and smaller class sizes (so every student gets the attention they deserve), so teaching and education support staff positions are a career path of choice and not a pathway to burnout.
- Proper maintenance of school buildings
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The Greens will establish an independent school building authority, so decisions about school building are based on need instead of marginal seats, and our schools are properly maintained.
Many school buildings are over 100 years old and current maintenance budgets are inadequate.
- Address the specialist teacher shortage
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All public school students should have access to free music, drama and language education. The Greens will take action to address Victoria’s specialist teacher shortage.
- Free solar for schools
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The Greens will fund solar panels for government schools, with grants they don’t have to pay back, so they never have to pay a power bill.
- Stop private schools getting more than their fair share
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The Greens will stop private schools from getting more than their share of public money, by capping their funding at 100% of the funding the Gonski review said was needed to meet students’ educational needs.
- Support student representation
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We need to hear directly from school students about the policies that shape how they experience their education, and what needs to change to make the system better and fairer. The Greens support investing in connecting student voice to government, ensuring every student – especially those from rural and regional communities and marginalised communities– has a real avenue to influence how education is delivered in their schools.