Page 1507 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 June 2022
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government enact in full all of the requests of the “Every School. Every Child” campaign led by the Australian Education Union. Their demands are simple and reasonable, and I was pleased to support their campaign in the course of the federal election.
They ask that the federal government fund public schools to a minimum of 100 per cent of the schooling resource standards, which is recognised as the minimum funding requirement to give every child, regardless of their background, the greatest opportunity to achieve their full potential. That includes fully funded loadings for students with disabilities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students from low-income SES backgrounds, rural and remote students and students requiring English language support.
They asked to remove the legislated 20 per cent cap on the commonwealth share of the SRS for public schools, remove the four per cent capital depreciation tax in school funding bilateral agreements between commonwealth and state and territory governments and establish a capital fund for public schools to help meet rising enrolment growth and infrastructure needs.
While I am encouraged that our nation is in a new direction under a new government, the proof will be in the pudding and I look forward to seeing these strong union calls achieved during this term of the federal government. This of course remains true, considering the change of government, a federal government that fundamentally supports and represent workers, but with strong left-wing voices on the crossbench in both houses I believe that now is our opportunity to achieve some of these bold visions for education reform that previous Labor governments, to their credit, have considered.
What we saw on 21 May was a public indictment of the neoliberalism of workplaces and the undermining of social services such as schools, hospitals and other public supports. I truly hope that this new parliament and new government rise to the very practical challenges that our country is facing, not least fundamentally funding for the inequalities in our education system.
With a properly funded education system, we could provide scholarships that pay for the degrees of those wishing to train as teachers, allowing them to make a liveable wage while undertaking the necessary practical training in our schools. This is a simple but practical way of making it easier to become a teacher while incentivising people to do so.
I am surprised that so many find the suggestion that we would create fee-free university and TAFE for highly skilled high school and college graduates to undertake the professional learning required to become a classroom teacher such a radical idea. If we acknowledge that there is a crisis, if we acknowledge that there is a shortage across the country, why are all sides of politics not united to find innovative and practical ways to encourage more people, more highly skilled graduates in high school and college to go through our school system and get an education degree? It baffles me that that position is considered radical and cannot be universally endorsed across the political spectrum.
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