‘Public school kids crammed into freezing demountables’: Greens want Fed Govt funding rethink

By EducationHQ News Team
Published July 2, 2024

The Greens say a new report from the Australian Education Union showing a growing number of public schools with insufficient space to meet enrolments puts pressure on Labor to include capital funding from the Commonwealth in the new national schools agreement.

Senator Allman-Payne says prior to the federal election in May 2022, Labor said if elected it would “work with states and territories as part of the next school funding agreements so that school systems have the facilities they need to teach growing numbers of students”.

Greens spokesperson on Primary and Secondary Education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, said the 2024 State of our Schools survey found that 19 per cent of principals did not have enough classrooms at their schools, while 40 per cent said they’d run out of space in the next three to five years.

The survey, which canvassed more than 13,000 educators, revealed that in the four years to 2024, there had been a significant decline in the acceptable state of public school facilities, with principals citing degrading bathrooms, school halls and science spaces as their biggest concerns.

“Labor’s paltry one-off $215 million injection to the public system was used primarily for basic maintenance and repairs like repairing decrepit and unhygienic toilet blocks and fixing drainage in playgrounds,” Allman-Payne said in a statement.

“Labor will provide zero ongoing Commonwealth funding to public schools, but will continue to pour public money into the fee-charging private system...”

According to The Guardian, non-government schools have been allocated $1.37 billion since 2017 in commonwealth funds as part of a capital grants program.

If the scheme remains in place, data revealed at Senate estimates last month predicted that private schools would receive an additional $732.7 million in Federal Government funds to 2027.

The Greens have joined a chorus of calls for the Federal Government to restart infrastructure funding for public schools, which was temporarily introduced by Labor in the 2023 budget and will soon expire.

The Greens claimed that prior to the last election, Labor said if elected they would “work with states and territories as part of the next school funding agreements so that school systems have the facilities they need to teach growing numbers of students”.

But under questioning in Senate Estimates, the Federal Government has refused to commit to meeting its pre-election pledge.

“Under Labor, private schools like the Prime Minister’s former high school, which recently pocketed $5 million from the Commonwealth, will continue to expand their facilities while public school kids cram into freezing demountables,” Allman-Payne said.

The AEU wants a $1.25 billion injection into government schools to make up for what it calls the axing of capital funding to the public system by the former Coalition government in 2017. The union said the cuts have led to a backlog of building maintenance.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, backed the demands at an address to the AEU’s federal conference four months ago, saying at the time that his party is prepared to use its numbers if funding legislation is brought before parliament this year.

“Labor pledged before the election that they would ensure public schools had the capital funding they need to provide the facilities our kids deserve,” Allman-Payne said.

“If Labor introduces legislation to lock in the new school funding arrangements later this year, the Greens will use our numbers in the Senate to push them to keep that promise.”