Funding bus hits the road
The Gonski funding fight is going mobile.
The national education union is running a nationwide bus tour to drum up support to save the funding plan, which it says is in the process of being rolled-back.
The funding model - which results from a review run by businessperson David Gonski - proposed reforms to direct extra funding towards schools with high numbers of students of low socio-economic background, funding specialist teachers and literacy programs where they are needed most.
The Australian Education Union (AEU) bus is heading to schools across the country to warn that the funding model is under threat.
The Federal Government is looking to set up a new funding model from 2018 that it closely tied to teaching standards and effectiveness.
The union bus tour will head to schools across Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia, finishing in Canberra on March 22. The tour will run alongside a national advertising blitz.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham says funding will still be given to schools in need, but that the Government’s draft policy — known as Quality Schools, Quality Outcomes — would lift teacher performance and provide better support to students as well.
Shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek says the Government’s “own budget papers show a $30 billion cut to education”.