Statement from Correna Haythorpe, AEU Federal President
The report in today’s Nine Newspapers, ‘Australia’s top private schools are growing richer and faster than ever’ is clear evidence that for eight long years, the federal government has failed to invest in the resources and infrastructure public schools need to provide the education and support public students deserve.
These are the cold, hard facts.
Between 2009 and 2018, public school students received $8,000 less in government capital works investment than their private school peers.
Public schools have been deprived of $21.5 billion in investment for the first five years of the current federal government (2013-18).
The gap in capital funding has now increased beyond $1,000 per student for every year since the Coalition was elected in 2013.
Private schools have received two to four times the level of government capital works investment of public schools per student, every year since 2013.
This inequity has been allowed to develop by the federal government.
Australia’s public education system is one of our great national institutions. It touches the lives of Australians in every community and should be the source of great pride and celebration.
The federal government can not allow a situation in which private schools with growing asset pools and rising profits are funded to the tune of thousands of dollars more per student than public schools to continue.
They must understand the critical importance of funding every public school properly, to ensure every child has a high quality education, regardless of their background.
That requires a commitment to the establishment of a capital fund for public schools to help meet rising enrolment growth and infrastructure needs and to fund public schools to a minimum of 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard.
