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The war of words over Gonski Funding has continued with the Teachers Federation taking full aim at Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis at a demonstration outside Nowra East Public School on Tuesday labelling her and the federal Liberal government as “deceitful”.
Deputy president of NSW Teachers Federation Gary Zadkovich implored the Turnbull Government to honour the original Gonski deal.
“They are now using deceit to try and conceal the fact the Turnbull plan, let’s not call it Gonski 2.0, is a deliberate deceit to fool people into thinking we are going to have increased funding for schools and we are going to have it allocated on a needs basis.
“There is only one needs based model and that’s the agreement we signed up for for six years in NSW.”
He said the Turnbull government and local members like Ann Sudmalis were deceiving the electorate and the nation by saying they were increasing funding to all schools over the next 10 years.
“And yes, they are, but they are increasing funding for schools like this [Nowra East Public] by only one fifth of the amount that was determined to be necessary to fully meet students needs and lift schools to the schooling resource standard,” he said.
Over the next two years in NSW, he said $846 million would not be allocated to public school students because the government is not implementing the Gonski needs based model.
This school [NEPS] will lose $1.3 million over the next two years if the NSW agreement is not honoured. That’s vital support for the students of this school that won’t be provided.
- Deputy president of NSW Teachers Federation Gary Zadkovich
“The government has invested an alternative plan for schools funding that will move money away from the schools that are most disadvantaged,” Mr Zadkovich said.
“It’s back to the bad old days of moving money towards advantaged schools that do not need the level of funding like a school like Nowra East Public needs.
“This school will lose $1.3 million over the next two years if the NSW agreement is not honoured. That’s vital support for the students of this school that won’t be provided.”
“Ann Sudmalis can say those figures were clutched from a passing cloud, that’s what I read, she can use disparaging, insulting language like that, but the facts are irrefutable.
“Let her come out and say to you, looking in your eyes, that $1.3 million for this school under the Gonski agreement will not be paid. That’s the fact of the matter.
“It is the birthright of every child born in this country to have quality public education at their nearest local school, in their local community.”
Relieving Nowra East principal Kristie Goldthorp said losing $1.3 million would “devastate” the school.
“Losing $1.3 million over two years would really hurt our students,” she said.
“One of the things we do here at Nowra East, which we are very proud of, is our literacy and numeracy programs we are running through Early Action for Success.
Losing $1.3 million over two years would really hurt our students.
- Relieving Nowra East Public School principal Kristie Goldthorp
“We have smaller class sizes, a great wellbeing program and we have learning support officers in every single class.
“If we lose that funding it would mean many of those resources would be gone from our school. That would only disadvantage students.
“We are a growing school, our enrollments are increasing, and the needs are increasing as our enrollments increase. We rely on that funding to provide a great education for our students.”
To lose $1.3 million over two years is just astronomical. That does really hurt a school like Nowra East.
- Relieving Nowra East Public School principal Kristie Goldthorp
Meanwhile, Mrs Sudmalis maintains the plan invests an additional $263 million of needs-based funding into Gilmore schools over the next 10 years.
She said a new schools funding estimator had been established to help Gilmore parents, teachers, principals and school communities see exactly how they would benefit from the government’s $18.6 billion needs-based schools funding plan.
The estimator says between 2018 and 2027 Nowra East Public School would actually be $3.8 million better off.
Our plan factors in the background, family life, levels of disability and socioeconomic status of each student and school to ensure funding is truly needs-based and fair.
- Gilmore MP Ann Sudmalis
“The new online estimator showed that all schools across the region would benefit from a funding increase,” she said.
“We’re delivering the real Gonski needs-based funding model that Labor didn’t. We’re delivering long-term funding certainty for schools and communities and ensuring everybody is treated fairly and equitably.
“Our plan factors in the background, family life, levels of disability and socioeconomic status of each student and school to ensure funding is truly needs-based and fair.”
You can check out the estimator at www.education.gov.au/qualityschools