Wednesday, 7 February 2024

 Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (09:46): Last week my eldest child started prep, and like many public schools, the school he is at thrives because of the passion of the incredible teaching staff and the local school community. But this occasion brought to front of mind the extraordinary inequity in school facilities between public and private schools that this government continues to entrench. Geelong is a very good case study to highlight this. Private schools that receive public funding have swimming pools and equestrian centres in Geelong, while many public schools lack basic facilities like shade sails, air conditioning and IT equipment and struggle to fund basic repairs. A recent Age and AEU investigation confirmed that public schools are systematically underfunded while private schools receive way more tax funding than they should. Worse, the Victorian Labor government have been using accounting tricks to create the illusion of more funding than they actually provide. It is beyond disgraceful that this is occurring under the watch of Labor governments who purport to care about public education. Everyone deserves a quality education no matter their postcode or income, and it is time Labor properly funded public schools with real money.