Allan government treading water on investment in public schools, TAFE and early childhood education

The Australian Education Union Victorian Branch has expressed disappointment in the Allan Labor Government’s lack of progressive investment in public education in the 2024–25 State Budget.

“AEU members will be disappointed in this budget with the failure to provide the investment in public education to properly support the education and training needs of the Victorian community,” Australian Education Union Victorian Branch President Meredith Peace said.

“We know public education is one of the best investments we can make. We need to see the government invest in students and teachers, educational leaders and support staff in early childhood, TAFE and public schools. Unfortunately, we haven't seen that to the level that we need today.”

Ms Peace noted the state budget highlights the critical importance of the need for a new national school funding agreement. Victorian public schools are the lowest SRS funded in the country, with one in 10 public school students effectively unfunded.

“If public schools were funded to the benchmark set by the state and federal governments more than 10 years ago, an additional $1.8 billion would have been available to invest through today’s budget. This could have funded measures to properly address the teacher shortage and provide the level of additional learning and wellbeing support our students need.

“We urge the Allan Labor Government to continue their really strong stance to demand that the Albanese Government contributes an additional 5% of funding to ensure our public schools get to that full funding standard,” Ms Peace said.

“Not one public school in Victoria is fully funded to the funding standard, despite every private school being over-funded. This means that the majority of children in this state who attend public schools are not getting the extra support they need to ensure they continue to receive a high-quality education.

Ms Peace also called on the Allan Labor Government to meaningfully address the TAFE teacher workforce shortage crisis, and fund TAFEs for the full cost of course delivery.

"If Victoria wants to flourish and address the skills shortages we currently confront, we need TAFE. There is barely enough funding in this state budget to help TAFE to tread water.

“Without TAFE teachers, we won't have the tradies, early childhood educators, aged care and disability workers that we need.”

The AEU Victorian Branch is also disappointed to see the timeframe for Victoria’s investment in expanded four-year-old preschool delayed by four years.

“While we have seen additional investment for early childhood education and care in this budget, we are very disappointed to see that the rollout of the four-year-old preschool program will not proceed in accordance with the same timeframe that has been previously announced, and will now be completed in 2036,” Ms Peace said.

“Although most of our kindergartens currently have the staff that they need, we know that in the coming years significant numbers of additional teachers and educators will be needed. Rather than slow down, we need to actually invest and provide the incentives to attract more people to come into the early childhood sector.”

In a more positive step, the AEU Victorian Branch welcomed the School Saving Bonus payment for public school parents, acknowledging the challenging financial circumstances families are facing.

“The $400 payment that's allocated in this budget will make a really big difference. Education costs are a struggle for many of our families and this will help in regard to things like school uniforms and other activities like sport or camps and excursions.

“We’ll be in contact with the Department of Education to ensure that schools are supported in the rollout of this payment, and particularly to make sure there's not significant additional workload allocated to our school leaders who might have to manage these payments.”

MEDIA CONTACT: WILL BREWSTER – 0458 809 472

7 May 2024