Western Sydney Teachers long view of school funding

Teacher representatives from across western Sydney gathered at Hawkesbury Lookout on the edge of the Blue Mountains to hear the latest developments in the Guarantee Gonski campaign and to speak out against the cuts to Gonski funding supported by local Coalition MPs and candidates.

The choice of venue was significant.

If you stand at Hawkesbury Lookout, face east 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.

To the south, you can see the Lindsay electorate where Coalition candidate Fiona Scott is committed to stripping $42.6 million from public schools. To the north and at your feet is the Macquarie electorate, where sitting MP Louise Markus would oversee the cutting of $34 million in Gonski funding.

The city rises out of the suburbs on the horizon, and in the foreground you can see large sections of the Chifley and Greenway electorates where Coalition candidates will strip another 83.3 million out of some of the region’s most vulnerable school communities.

The President of the Nepean Teachers Association, Sarah Willett said that Coalition candidates in western Sydney were not serious about needs-based funding.

“Just a few weeks ago Fiona Scott criticised the Government for ‘back ending’ the implementation of Gonski. She said there would be many older students who would miss out.”

“Now, under the Abbott education plan, years five and six don’t matter at all.”

Ms Willett was concerned that the Coalition could commit to a 10 year plan to invest $6.7 billion in a Queensland roads project, but dismissed the full implementation of Gonski as off in the “never, never”.

“Why won’t they commit to the full 6 year Gonski deal? Is it because they never believed in Gonski?” she said.

The Presidents and Secretaries of the Hawkesbury, Blue Mountains, Lower Blue Mountains, Nepean, St Marys-Mt Druitt and Blacktown Teachers Associations each wrote to their respective Coalition MPs and candidates seeking an explanation about the cuts to the NSW Gonski deal under the Abbott education plan. None had received a considered reply at the time of calling the extraordinary meeting at Hawkesbury Lookout.

The Labor candidate for Macquarie Susan Templeman attended the event to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to schools funding reform and to address the concerns of constituents about Abbott’s cuts to Gonski.

Those present also launched the Federation’s Electronic Billboard which will be broadcasting Gonski Guarantee advertisements and images at targeted sites over the next two weeks.