Bartlett cuts budget for independent and Catholic schools

The Premier has confirmed that he will cut the budget for Vocational Education Training in independent schools by 33%, and blames funding cuts by the Federal Labor Government.

This decision will severely compromise the capacity of independent schools to offer VET, who have described it as “a severe blow”.

No other State has cut their non-government and Catholic school sectors capacity to deliver VET in Schools in the way that Tasmania has.

In the Premiers letter, he confirms that Tasmania has lost out in the new National agreement for Skills and Workforce Development, being funded on a population basis, rather than the previous funding under the Howard Government which acknowledged Tasmania had problems of scale and a small population.

This is a worrying sign for Tasmania if funding for training and workforce development is to be cut by the Federal Labor Government in this insensitive way, and the Premier is unwilling to fight for a better share.

The Catholic School sector has been fighting against this cut for some months, but similarly has lost out on funding, with the Premier blaming the Federal Government for the cuts.

Independent and Catholic schools form a vital part of our overall education system and by reducing their budget, not only will it limit the services they can offer it may also place greater strain on the public system, which is already under siege from the Premier’s Tasmania Tomorrow shake up.

The very real concern that this under-funding raises is that the Premier is both deliberately ignoring his responsibilities to the non-government sector, and also reducing Tasmania’s effort to ensure that more students leaving Years 11 and 12 have VET qualifications.

Maybe he thinks that by starving them of funding he can stop the flood of students leaving government schools following the implementation of the Tasmania Tomorrow reforms.

The Premier must ensure that non-government schools receive the funding that they are entitled to right now so that they can continue to provide a high-quality education and a strong VET in schools program to a large number of Tasmanian students.
Sue Napier MP Shadow Minister for Education