Terry Polglase: Teachers and parents travel to Canberra for Gonski

A delegation of teachers and parents is preparing to fly to Canberra this week to tell Tasmanian Federal Liberal MPs that cutting $264 million* from public schools in the next decade will hurt the most disadvantaged students in the state.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s decision to scrap Gonski after 2017, and other Federal Budget measures, will cut $264 million from Tasmanian public schools, according to Tasmania’s Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff.

“The Prime Minister has torn up the Tasmanian Gonski Agreement and with it the resources and funding needed to enable every Tasmanian student to reach their full potential,” says AEU Tasmanian President Terry Polglase.

“We will be telling Tasmanian Liberal MPs that denying Tasmanian public schools the equivalent of 264 teachers each year for the next decade will prevent our students from receiving the support they need in areas such as literacy and numeracy.”

“The losers from Abbott’s budget will be Tasmanian students with disability, students from low-income families, those living in regional areas, students from non-English speaking homes and Indigenous students.”

The Tasmanian delegation in Canberra for Thursday’s national day of lobbying is comprised of Jenny Eddington, President of TASSO; Julie Argent, Principal of Forth Primary School; Roz Madsen, State Manager of AEU Tasmanian Branch and President Terry Polglase.

The Tasmanian delegation will meet with MPs including Tasmanian Federal Liberal MPs Brett Whitely and Eric Hutchinson.

Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman has signed a pledge and promised to fund the state’s share of the six years of the Tasmanian Gonski Agreement. This will see our Tasmanian public schools receive $59 million of Gonski funding in the final two years of the six year agreement.

“It is a very welcome commitment from Mr Hodgman and the Federal Government needs to reconsider its position. Our schools need to be resourced to a level where they are able to deliver a quality education to every child in Tasmania,” said Mr Polglase.

*$264 million is the estimate given by Tasmanian Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff about the cost of Federal Budget cuts over the next decade for public education as quoted in The Examiner newspaper, May 28 2014.
AEU Tasmanian President Terry Polglase.