Adam Bandt: There are schools that need more money. They’re called public schools.
There are schools that need more money. They’re called public schools, and there’s not a cent for them in this appropriation bill. In public schools, one in five teachers is dipping into their own pocket to buy things like food or equipment for their students, but they don’t get any support from this bill. In public schools there are 45 per cent of teachers helping them buy things like clothes and toiletries, but they don’t get a cent from this bill. Under this government’s funding formula 99 percent of public schools will be funded less than the Schooling Resource Standard by 2023, while 100 per cent of private schools are going to be above that benchmark, but this bill gives the private schools more money and gives nothing to the public schools.
If we want to have a country where everyone is entitled to a good-quality education, where our educators get paid properly and where, when you go to school, you have proper equipment in proper buildings, we need to fund our public schools. But this government can find $3.4 billion so that schools that are already doing alright get even more money, but public schools get nothing. This government is failing the 2½ million children in public schools.
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