Public school local funding guarantee: Labor gives voters a real choice

Voters now have a clear choice at the next federal election between supporting Labor’s vision of extra funding for every public school or continuing the Morrison government’s billion-dollar cuts to public school funding.

Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe said that today’s local school funding announcement by Bill Shorten is very welcome news and means that parents will know exactly how much extra funding their local public school will see under a Shorten Labor government.

“There is now a clear choice at the next federal election for voters who support public education,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“While the Morrison government busies itself with cutting billions in funding from public schools, Labor has released detailed funding plans showing exactly how much extra funding each public school stands to gain under a Shorten Labor government.”

“Via the ‘Fair Go For Schools’ website, parents can get a clear picture of the additional funding their child’s local public school will receive from Labor’s $3.3 billion public school investment,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“Under Labor, each public school will see more teachers in classrooms, smaller class sizes, more teacher aides, more one-on-one individual attention for public school students, more classroom support, or more student programs for each public school.”

“Meanwhile, the Morrison government’s record of public school budget cuts has left public schools out of pocket by $1.9 billion in 2018 and 2019, and by $14 billion over 10 years,” Ms Haythorpe said.

“Labor’s election commitment to smashing the Morrison government’s arbitrary 20 per cent funding cap of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) will bring public schools much closer to 100 per cent of the SRS,” Ms Haythorpe said. “Parents in public school communities understand the importance of fully funding public schools, and they vote,” Ms Haythorpe said.

Parents and teachers can see exactly how much extra funding their child’s local public school will receive under Labor’s $3.3 billion public school funding plan at https://www.fairgoforschools.com.au/