NSWTF – Highs and Lows

Dear Colleague,

Throughout this term there have been a number of highs and lows affecting public education, its teachers and students.

As a result of ongoing campaign actions and negotiations with the department, we have achieved:

a moratorium on staffing transfers for drought-affected schools
Federation having a role in the design of new and refurbished schools, to ensure pedagogy drives design, rather than the other way around commitments from the department to address issues of administrative workload interfering with teaching and learning significant increases in financial incentives for teachers in rural and remote parts of NSW.

During term 3 we also participated in the Fair Funding Now! National Week of Action, with teachers in NSW hosting and participating in more than 130 events. This display of community support shows the strength of our union to engage with our communities and bring people on board to campaign for justice for our students and for public education.

Unfortunately, ongoing chaos in Canberra produced another change in Prime Minister, and with that change, a new push to return to the old, unfair funding models of the past that saw the majority of federal funding delivered to the minority of students in independent schools.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement of an additional $4.6 billion for the non-government school sector, which has been widely criticised as a cynical move to buy votes ahead of the next federal election, offered not a single dollar in additional, needs-based funding for students of public schools.

This blatant favouring of non-government schools over the public sector shows his deep contempt for the majority of Australian children, and a particular disregard for the majority of students facing socio-educational disadvantage that are taught by the public system.

This injustice cannot stand.

When we return in Term 4, the Fair Funding Now! campaign will be ramping up in the lead-up to the federal election. We know that the majority of Australians agree with the principles of needs-based education funding, and often something as simple as a personal conversation can secure their support at the ballot box.

After a restful break, when we return in Term 4 we will be doing whatever it takes to secure a fair, needs-based funding model for our students, and for the future of public education.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to add your name to the Fair Funding Now! letter to Minister Stokes. You can do so via this link www.fairfundingnow.org.au/nswpremier.

Regards,

Maurie Mulheron
President