Federal Liberal MPs must stop $80M Gonski cuts to Tasmanian schools

Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff has confirmed* that Tasmanian schools will be denied up to $80M in Gonski federal funding if Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull stops the Gonski rollout at the end next year, the AEU said today.

The AEU has written to all Tasmanian Federal Liberal MPs asking them to explain what urgent steps they are taking to ensure students are not denied critically needed Gonski school funding.

“Parents and teachers want to know what their local Federal Government representatives Andrew Nikolic, Brett Whiteley and Eric Hutchinson are doing to stop schools being denied the teachers, programs and other resources they so desperately need,” said Helen Richardson, AEU Tasmanian Branch President.

“Why should parents and teachers support Mr Nikolic, Mr Whiteley and Mr Hutchinson when they won’t stand-up and fight for our kids and their right to the great education that Gonski enables,” said Ms Richardson.

“Too many of our students are already being held back because of government cuts and underfunding while other states pull ahead and this will dramatically worsen if Mr Turnbull denies our schools the staff and supports we know is needed to make a difference.”

“Are Mr Nikolic, Mr Whitely and Mr Hutchinson going to stand up and fight for Tassie kids or are they on the side of Malcolm Turnbull?”

Mr Turnbull is proposing to stop Gonski at the end of 2017 – two years short of full implementation and just before the majority of the funding is to be delivered to schools.

Mr Turnbull plans to replace Gonski funding with a flat-rate percentage of each state’s School Resource Standard. Ms Richardson said it would mean the end of needs-based school funding and would result in Tasmanian school money being siphoned to states such as WA.

The Tasmanian Government submission to a Senate Inquiry into disability school funding acknowledged that a flat-rate funding model would hurt Tasmanian schools.

“The proposal is to apply funding for all jurisdictions on an equal percentage of their full School Resource Standard. This revised distribution will have a negative impact for Tasmania and in turn will result in a decrease in the students with disability loading.” (Tasmanian Government Submission August 2015)

“Not only will Mr Turnbull deny Tasmanian students $80M in Gonski funding but there will be cuts to recurrent funding that will see Tasmania lose school funding to states like WA,” said Ms Richardson.

“Tasmanian schools can least afford more cuts or to be denied Gonski funding that targets the many complex learning needs of our students,” said Ms Richardson.

Meanwhile, Mr Rockliff has said that he and his Government has been advocating strongly for the Federal Government to continue the rollout of Gonski across the full six years which is very welcome news.

A real test of the State Government’s commitment to fight for Tasmanian schools will be at the COAG leaders meeting on 8 April when Premier Hodgman has the opportunity to put Gonski on the agenda.

*ABC 936 Mornings Program, 15 March 2016.
Helen Richardson, AEU Tasmanian Branch President