Equity gap takes centre stage at Federal Conference

With a conference theme of ‘Resilience, Determination, Hope’, guest speakers included Labor leader Anthony Albanese, Labor Education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek, Greens leader Adam Bandt and human rights activist Craig Foster.

The Conference highlighted the funding inequity profiled in the latest Productivity Commission’s annual Report into Government Services (RoGS), which showed that per-student total government recurrent funding to private schools has grown at 3.3 times the rate of public school funding over the last decade

During proceedings AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe called on the Morrison Government to restore funding equity to public education in the Federal Budget.

These equity issues were articulated in the AEU’s recent Pre-Budget submission to the Federal Government, which highlighted extensive evidence that Australia has one of the most inequitable education systems in the world. This inequity in funding leaves 99% of public schools below the minimum benchmark for school funding, the Schooling Resource Standard.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison must commit to funding for universal access to Early Childhood Education for children in the years before starting school, and restore the billions of dollars of funding which have been cut from schools and TAFE.

This is vitally important not only for the economic future of Australia but for our children.

A link to the full speech is here.