Poorest students to miss out
Cameron Houston and Farrah Tomazin
May 27, 2012


MANY of Victoria's most disadvantaged schoolchildren will have less funding for uniforms, books and excursions next year, after the Baillieu government slashed an allowance for some of the poorest schools.   

Some principals discovered only last week that they will lose up to $80,000 from government cuts to the education maintenance allowance (EMA), which, combined with the scrapping of the $300 school start bonus, contributed a $19 million saving in the state budget.

''When kids come through the front gates of our school we want them all to be treated as equal, but I can't see how we can continue to do this,'' said Warrnambool College principal Mary Pendergast. ''Next year, there will be a cohort of families in deep financial stress, and the schools will be presented with a group of students who will be unable to present with the necessary equipment and uniforms to begin their education.''   


Associations representing primary and secondary school principals have also accused the Baillieu government of siphoning off $7 million in federal funding that was promised to state schools under a national literacy and numeracy partnership.

Under this scheme, more than $2 million has already been passed on to Victorian independent high schools, which has fuelled claims of preferential treatment.

A spokesman for Education Minister Martin Dixon said the funding would be allocated to government schools through ''general appropriation'', which he claimed provided greater flexibility.

But the latest move to restructure EMA funding has infuriated principals and state school councils.

The current EMA is available to parents with a Health Care Card. The family of a year 7 student, for example, receives $470, which is split equally between the school and the family. But from next year, parents will receive between $150 and $300, depending on their child's year level, while schools will get nothing. The combined allocation has been used by schools and parents to pay for uniforms, resources and excursions. From next year these will all need to be funded by parents with a substantially reduced allocation.

While the state government has pledged to provide ''equity funding'' of $62 million over four years to the 200 poorest state schools, hundreds of others will be worse off.   

Frank Sal, president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals, said the cuts to the EMA discriminated against students from poor families, who relied on the grants for basic school equipment. ''Much of the restructuring of government school funding seems to have been extremely underhanded,'' Mr Sal said.

The Victorian Principals Association recently surveyed primary schools hit by the budget cuts. Preliminary results from a snapshot of about 100 schools found most would suffer, with $1.25 million in total budget losses and only $67,000 in gains.

Association president Gabrielle Leigh said many of the schools were small and the cuts represented a significant proportion of their curriculum budget. ''Our research is showing us that a whole group of schools are going to be quite significantly disadvantaged … [including] the middle band of schools,'' she said.

Alkira Secondary College principal Ian McKenzie said his school expected to lose about $40,000. When combined with five neighbouring schools - including Hampton Park Secondary College and Cranbourne Secondary - the total losses are about $400,000.

Gary Palmer, principal of Ballarat High, said his school would lose about $70,000 in EMA funding.   

But Education Minister Martin Dixon defended the changes, saying they were necessary in the face of challenging economic times. He said EMA payments generally represented less than 1 per cent of a school's total budget, which could be up to $20 million a year in large secondary schools.

''There is very little justification for some schools claiming that camps and excursions will suffer as a result of the EMA changes,'' he said.

''Our schools are well resourced, most have multimillion-dollar budgets and the ability to support students' needs … In addition, parents … often enter into payment plans with their schools to spread the cost.''

comments so far

        The ultra-wealthy conservatives - the Republicans in the US, the Liberal-Nationals here - are the ones who always squeal about class warfare when anyone suggests making them pay a fair amount of tax, but they are the ones waging war on the poor, and making damn sure that class structure isn't threatened by the peasantry daring to think they have any equality of opportunity. Baillieu shows his true colours ever more clearly.   

    Commenter
        Kitteh
    Location
    Date and time
        May 27, 2012, 10:43AM


        It is extremely hard to understand the mentality of this government. We have to excuse Baillieu because he clearly does not know how poor families survive, but I am sure there must be MPs who have at least seen or heard of the difficulties faced by such families. What are they doing? Pushing these kids on to the road rather than to schools will create a need for even more prisons.   

    Commenter
        sensible
    Location
    Date and time
        May 27, 2012, 10:50AM


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/poorest-students-to-miss-out-20120526-1zc2v.html#ixzz1w1xmjiNa

didnt Abbott suggest that the education allowance the Feds are handing out would be better given to the schools..rather than to people who may or may not spend it on education?????

its just a thought crook.. when it comes to things like education it is more Fed problem than a State one..


havent you heard swan wants a surplus  and to get it he is cutting everyones throat..

I see you havent cracked up about our defence personnel having their free trips home cut to the core.

to save swans face.

mozzaok wrote on May 27^th, 2012 at 5:43pm:


State as in 'the' state, the government not state as in individual states.

MOTR wrote on May 27^th, 2012 at 7:56pm:


Like I don't know that.

I was pointing out that the term "state school" refers to the fact it is a government school per se, NOT that is "State" NSW, VIC, SA etc school. They are schools FUNDED by the state (in the governmental sense, regardless of whether it be state or federal).

Yes it's semantics.