Australian politician and current deputy leader of the Labor party, Tanya Plibersek, has issued a warning to government and internal critics on the need to address the issue of inequality in schools.
She made this call in a speech delivered to the Australian Education Union, were Plibersek warned both institutions that the fight for equal school funding is not over.
Plibersek, in her speech, further warns both institutions that the visible inequality in the education facilities portrays the opinion that Australians care more about some children than others.
Additionally, she thank the union for the support given to Labor party at the 2019 election, although Labor didn’t get the opportunity to implement any of their policies.
Plibersek noted the “shocking” disparity in capital spending between public and private schools, with half of the $22 billion spent on school capital improvements between 2013 and 2017 occurring in just 10 percent of schools.
Plibersek argued that inequality was a sign of the nation’s revealed preference. In the same way, a country built “great temples and churches” to show it valued God, “when a country builds beautiful schools, it’s revealing that it values education.”
She said:
I want Australia to be a nation that prioritises education, not just by paying teachers good salaries, but by building respect into the environment you work in every day.
Australia has a skills crisis – and it’s a crisis of Scott Morrison’s own making.https://t.co/9RplasrVgE
— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) February 21, 2020
Plibersek’s Labor to prioritize education
Tanya Pilbersek, in her speech, said that the Labor party would continue to make education funding a crucial point in their mission, and also place emphasis on the disparity between public and private schools’ spending on facilities.
She said:
That doesn’t mean our principles have changed, It doesn’t mean our hunger to prosecute them has diminished, we are going to continue our strive for better education.
While at the poll, Labor party had pledged to deliver $14 billion over the ten years to public schools, although internal critics of Labor’s policy agenda argue that big spending promises failed to translate into votes and pushed the opposition towards increasing tax.
Australian Green to abolish public school fees
The union’s federal conference also heard from Adam Bandt, Australian Greens leader, who argued that public school fees of up to $5,000 should be abolished because the state system should be free.
In his speech, Bandt explained the Greens’ policy of “genuinely free education” in public schools and TAFE as part of his proposed “Green New Deal.”
Bandt said:
Although public education was free “in a broad sense”, over decades there had been “creeping cost-shift from the state, pushing [the cost] back onto parents. Book packs, excursions, sports programs and music lessons were part of the extras charged to parents, who would often borrow rather than see their kids go without.
He emphasizes that Australian Green would pursue free funded public schools to reach the schooling resource standard by 2023 and increase capital funding for public school works to $400m annually.
