Liberals offer icing on the cake for our kids but steal the cake!

In opposition and during the election the Liberal party was keen to let us know that they would honour the Gonski commitment that was made by the previous Labor/Green Government.
“A majority Hodgman Liberal government will deliver Gonski-plus,’’ we were promised by Will Hodgman.

Parents all around the state were relieved, they believed their schools would be given extra funds to top up literacy programs and fund other initiatives the schools had planned.

Well, with the election won, the government will honour the Gonski commitment by providing a 5% top-up to each school’s resource package, which is about 25 cents per school day per student in primary school and about 30 cents per day in high school.

However, this 5% “icing” has come at a huge cost to the underlying budget of schools. By removing an average of two teachers per school the government has left most schools struggling to keep class sizes below 30 and in a dilemma as to which programs to cut. For some schools, there is no dilemma, the only spare teachers in these schools were running literacy programs.

The Liberal Government talks up education “We understand that if we can lift education we can lift Tasmania” and yet their cuts to education jeopardise the very programs designed to help disadvantaged kids bridge the gap and raise Tasmania’s literacy. Sadly the Government has stolen the cake and left schools with little but the icing.

I am standing at the Macquarie Street end of the Southern Outlet between 8 am and 9 am holding a placard that reads:

“The Will and Jerry Show”
Will & Jer: “We promise to honour Gonski”
Will: “Can we afford it?”
Jeremy: “Yes! We cut teachers”

I will be standing in the same spot every school day until school finishes on the 18th. I have no political affiliation, I am carrying out this protest so that parents voices can be heard. I am dismayed at the education cuts and the damage it will do to so many schools around the state.
Teresa O’Leary, South Hobart Primary and Taroona High parent