Teacher shortage plan silent on public school funding
The Greens say the government’s Draft National Teacher Workforce Action Plan will not solve the teacher shortfall crisis unless Labor gets serious about fully funding public schools.
Quotes attributable to Greens spokesperson on schools, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
“It’s encouraging to hear an Education Minister talk about the growing inequality gap in the school system. Public school teachers, parents and carers have been calling this out for years.
“But what’s less encouraging is how silent the government’s Draft National Teacher Workforce Action Plan is on funding to the public school system.
“The plan rightly identifies unbearable workloads and conditions as a key reason why teachers are leaving the profession. But a $25 million pilot program to reduce workloads looks laughably tokenistic when you consider that just last week Labor committed an additional $1.7 billion to the private school sector. Meanwhile, public schools in regions like Central Queensland are suffering crisis-level teacher shortfalls.
“It’s all well and good to create incentives to attract and train new teachers, but public schools need to be properly funded so they can afford to hire enough teachers and support staff to deliver the education our kids deserve. Otherwise teachers will continue to leave the profession and that equity gap will grow even wider.
“It’s pretty telling that the first three actions of the draft plan are a marketing campaign, the creation of a new award and a commitment to encourage the public to nominate teachers for royal honours. Instead of real, tangible support Labor is offering teachers a PR makeover.
“The only way to close the equity gap between rich and poor kids – which the Education Minister claims he wants to do – is to guarantee that public schools receive 100% of their Schooling Resource Standard within the life of the next National School Reform Agreement.
“Anything else is just window dressing.”