FED: Govt denies it is cutting funding to public schools

AAP General News (Australia)
08-27-2008
FED: Govt denies it is cutting funding to public schools

By Julian Drape

CANBERRA, Aug 27 AAP - The Rudd government has rejected a new report which suggests
funding for public schools will be cut over the next four years, resulting in the loss
of 1,000 teachers.

The report, commissioned by the Australian Education Union (AEU), says under current
budget projections there'll be a 1.8 per cent decrease in real funding for public schools
by 2011-12.

In 2007-8, the commonwealth budget for government schools was $3.54 billion, but that
will drop to $3.48 billion by 2011-12, University of Sydney academic Jim McMorrow says
in Reviewing the Evidence.

"What kind of education revolution would cut money to public schools," AEU president
Angelo Gavrielatos told reporters in Canberra, referring to the Rudd government's name
for its education policy.

"(It's) a 1.8 per cent decrease in real funding for public schools during the life
of the next four-year agreement".

Mr Gavrielatos said that equated to the loss of 1,000 teachers, and called on the government
to immediately inject $1.5 billion into public schools to avert the funding slide started
during the Howard government years.

But Treasurer Wayne Swan said the federal government already was committed to increasing
education funding.

"We are already boosting funding for education, that's what our trades training centres
in schools are all about, that's what the digital revolution is all about," Mr Swan told
reporters.

"There is additional money flowing to schools."

Education Minister Julia Gillard said the government was elected on the back of policies
"to make huge new investments into education".

"We've already started rolling out our $2.5 billion investment in trades training centres
in schools, our $1.2 billion investment in the digital education revolution, and the list
goes on," Ms Gillard told ABC Radio.

"The last budget was a budget in which education was a centrepiece."

But Ms Gillard would not say whether the public school sector would be better or worse
off under Labor.

"We are in active negotiations about the schools funding agreement for the next four
years and those negotiations ... will be announced through the Council of Australian Governments
process," she said.

"I'm not going to allow an AEU report ... to derail that incredibly important set of
negotiations."

Mr Gavrielatos hit back saying if one "unpacked" Labor's big election initiatives "you
will find on a yearly basis the funding is very small".

"We should not be conned by announcement that talk about funding over 10-year periods," he said.

The Reviewing the Evidence reports found government schools' share of commonwealth
funding declined from 43 per cent to 35 per cent under the Howard government and would
drop further to just 33.8 per cent by 2011-12 under Labor.

At the same time funding to non-government schools increased.

The government has pledged to keep the existing funding formula - which Dr McMorrow
said was "riddled with anomalies and flaws" - for the next four years.

Mr Gavrielatos did not believe the Rudd government intended to cut public school funding,
which was why, he said, it must now "introduce immediately new measures for additional
funding".

AAP jcd/jlw/srp/bwl

KEYWORD: EDUCATION LEAD

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