The Education Alliance has launched its state budget submission ahead of the May budget, calling on the State Government to return the funding it has stripped from the public education system and urgently invest in school maintenance.
The submission details the cuts made since 2013, including over $220 million from school budgets, 600 teaching positions, 1000 Education Assistants and Aboriginal and Islander Education Officers.
The submission also calls for the State Government to scrap plans to introduce Public Private Partnerships, remove the $4,000 fee on families of 457 Visa children, and to urgently invest in clearing the $136 million backlog of school maintenance issues.
State School Teachers’ Union President Pat Byrne said the cuts were having a devastating effect in some schools.
“Schools are telling us they have been forced to drop programs for students with learning difficulties, literacy and numeracy support, psychologists, nurses, music programs, excursions and behaviour intervention programs,” she said.
“The Education Minister keeps rolling out the same old rhetoric about public school resourcing, when in fact education spending is only increasing by 1.2% while student numbers are increasing by 3.4%, resulting in an estimated average reduction in expenditure per student of $714 per year.
“The public schools system cannot be expected to achieve the same results for students with fewer and fewer resources.
“A serious lack of investment in school maintenance by the Minister has led to dangerous incidents, such as a ceiling falling in on students, and must be addressed.”
United Voice Secretary Carolyn Smith said the loss of Education Assistants and Aboriginal and Islander Education Officers was compounding the problems.
“Colin Barnett and his Liberal Government have cut funding that helps our most vulnerable children,” she said.
“We’ve seen cuts to Ethnic Education Assistants, who help teach English to migrant children and EA’s in the k-2 classrooms, who help give kids an extra hand in the early years at school.
“They’ve also cut $4.7 million from AIEO funding, meaning Aboriginal children won’t have the support network at school they require. “They have also started selling off school services, bringing in privatisation to WA’s public school system. This means critical services such as cleaning will be run by companies eager to make a profit from our kids.”
CPSU/CSA Branch Assistant Secretary Rikki Hendon said the 178 positions cut from the Department’s Central and Regional offices had left schools feeling unsupported and overwhelmed.
“The axing of jobs in these offices has resulted in a huge and complex body of financial, human resources, IT and administrative work being thrust upon schools which, because of cuts to their budgets, do not have the resources to cope with the extra load,” she said.
The budget submission has made almost 15 recommendations. The full submission can be found here: 2015 Budget Submission.
