A new report revealing that the Morrison Government cut $325 million in funding from TAFE budgets last year is yet more evidence Prime Minister Scott Morrison does not value TAFE’s crucial role in the provision of high quality vocational education.

PISA highlights Morrison Govt’s equity funding gaps for low-SES schools

The Morrison Government continues to preference funding to Catholic schools despite falling enrolments and in the face of booming student enrolments in the public system, according to new analysis of ACARA finance and enrolment data.

Labor’s continued commitment to address Australia’s skills crisis and strengthen the -vocational education and training sector is welcome news to a sector currently suffering from huge budget cuts and lack of investment from the Morrison Government.

The Morrison Government’s admission yesterday that Australia’s richest private schools can access additional funding from the $1.2 billion Choice and Affordability Fund while public schools cannot is yet further proof of their blatant disregard for public schools and preference for private schools.

Today is World Teachers’ Day in Australia - an ideal opportunity to recognise and acknowledge the immense contribution that teachers make to students, families, schools and communities around Australia.

The Federal Coalition government’s failure to spend almost $1 billion budgeted for TAFE and training programs over the past five years, despite the skills shortage gripping the Australian economy, is more evidence of its plan to deliberately starve the TAFE sector into oblivion.

The Morrison Government’s decision to fund its natural disaster relief package with money originally meant for investment into education infrastructure is a short-term decision that will hurt the education prospects for young people in drought, fire and flood-affected areas for decades to come.

The Australian Education Union has welcomed Senator Jacqui Lambie’s call for more investment into TAFE in Tasmania, saying it is a timely reminder of the $3 billion in funding cuts that the Federal Coalition Government has inflicted on the TAFE sector across the country since 2013.

The decision by Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan to push ahead with a review of the Melbourne Declaration while ignoring widespread calls for a review of NAPLAN is yet another example of the Morrison Government’s lack of understanding about the general issues of concern to the teaching profession.

The dire effect of the Morrison Government’s cuts to public school funding has again been highlighted, with an international report revealing that total expenditure on schools and non-tertiary post-secondary education in Australia has fallen from 10.4 per cent of total government expenditure in 2010, to 8.9 per cent in 2016.

The Morrison Government’s refusal to guarantee ongoing funding beyond 2020 for two years of preschool for all Australian children means that our Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector receives little more than half the funding provided by other OECD countries to their preschools.

The plummeting numbers of students enrolled with nationally-recognised Vocational Education and Training (VET) providers is yet another pointer to the funding crisis facing Australia’s TAFE network.

ACARA’s ’nothing to see here’ approach to the NAPLAN 2019 data release and its mishandling of the NAPLAN online debacle has reinforced yet again the need for a comprehensive review of the entire NAPLAN testing regime.

Proposals put forward by the Grattan Institute to attract high achievers into the ranks of the nation’s school teachers demonstrate the fundamental importance of additional Commonwealth funding for improving public school student performance.

The Morrison Government must justify why it provides any funding at all for elite private schools, in light of My School data showing that the four richest elite private schools in Australia received more Commonwealth capital funding than 1800 other schools combined.

The extent to which public schools in Australia are being ignored by the Morrison Government when it comes to capital funding for new facilities and renovations has been highlighted again today.

The Morrison Government has once again refused to guarantee ongoing funding for Universal Access of 15 hours per week of preschool for all three and four-year-old children in Australia at today’s COAG meeting.

The Morrison Government’s push to put the private sector at the forefront of Australia’s VET sector will only create a profit-driven feeding frenzy that hurts the career prospects of thousands of Australians who need access to high quality vocational education.

The trade negotiations between Australia and the European Union (EU) were launched on 18 June 2018. So far, four rounds of negotiations have taken place and the last round of negotiations took place in Brussels on 1-5 July 2019. Despite that the negotiations have now been ongoing for a year the level of transparency and consultations with unions are so far too limited.

Scott Morrison’s Local Schools Community Fund has highlighted his government’s double standards when it comes to capital works funding for public as opposed to private schools.

The best way to reverse the fall in enrolments at government-funded vocational education providers is to restore funding to TAFE and return it to being the primary provider of vocational education in Australia.

The Marshall Government’s new VET plan shows it is determined to sell South Australia’s TAFE system to the highest bidder and allow private training providers to line their own pockets at the expense of TAFE students.

The Morrison Government is throwing away billions of dollars of national economic benefit by failing to guarantee ongoing funding for fifteen hours per week of preschool for Australia’s 700,000 three- and four-year-old children.

Australian public school teachers are amongst the most innovative and enthusiastic adopters of new ideas and approaches to education but face higher workloads, fewer resources and more administration duties than global averages, according to a new international report into teaching conditions.