If you stand at Hawkesbury Lookout, face the city and take in everything for as far as the eye can see, you are looking at communities that collectively will have over $850 million dollars of Gonski funding stripped out of their public schools under the Abbott education plan. Of course, under Abbott’s education plan non-Government schools will also lose about two-thirds of money currently committed in the Gonski deal.
Last week, Teachers from the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury wrote to Ms Markus seeking an explanation. There has been no reply.
Candidate Susan Templeman has agreed to attend the event to respond to the concerns of constituents in Macquarie about Abbott’s cuts to the Government’s Gonski funding reforms.
The full six year implementation of the Gonski reforms will attract $ 74.7 million to public schools in the Macquarie electorate.
However, by supporting the Abbott education plan, Ms Markus is committed to stripping $34 million from the total federal funding currently allocated to public schools in her electorate under the Gonski deal.
As it stands, the Abbott education plan:
- cuts short the six year Gonski deal by two years,
- strips $3 billion from the $5 billion NSW Gonski deal between the Federal Government and the State Coalition Government, and
- Reopens the Australian Education Bill 2013, thereby threatening both the legislative framework that underpins the new needs-based funding model and the requirement for state governments to increase their investment in education.
Hawkesbury Lookout has been chosen so teacher representatives from both the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains can come together. They will also be joined by delegations from the Lindsay and Greenway electorates.
Event: A gathering for Gonski – taking the long view on schools funding
Where: Hawkesbury Lookout, Hawkesbury/Springwood Road at Hawkesbury Heights
When: Thursday 22 August at 4.00pm
No comments:
Post a Comment