South Coast Teachers Rally for Fair School Funding

NSW Teachers Federation

South Coast teachers will rally for the future of our kids as the Albanese Government faces increasing pressure to fully fund the region’s public schools.

A shocking report released on Friday highlights the growing inequality between public and private schools.

RALLY DETAILS

Gilmore

Location: Nowra High School
Date: Thursday, September 12, 2024
Time: 8AM

South Coast State MP Liza Butler is expected to attend.

"Just last week, new research highlighted the abhorrent trend that by 2022, six in ten NSW private schools were receiving more government funding than comparable public schools,” NSW Teachers Federation President Henry Rajendra said. “This is wholly unacceptable and is one of the big problems Labor and Mr Albanese were elected to fix."

Key findings from the report include:

In 2013, there were 394 private schools in NSW that received more combined Government funding (Commonwealth and State) than comparable public schools. By 2022, this had increased to 536 private schools.
This is an increase from 46.7% of private schools to 59.6% receiving more government funding than comparable public schools over the decade to 2022.
In 2013 there were 139 private schools in the ICSEA 1050+ group (which includes the top quartile of Socio-Educational Advantage) funded higher than comparable public schools and by 2022 this had increased to 217 schools – an increase of 56%.

"Public schools in New South Wales do the heavy lifting, educating two and half times the number of students from low socio-educational advantage backgrounds. Public schools also educate almost three times as many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Yet, they are not receiving the funding they need to meet these students' needs.

“Mr Albanese may not have created this problem but he can’t remain asleep at the wheel. It’s time to take control of this wholly inequitable mess and clean it up. Our kids’ future demands leadership.

"Full funding is the only way to ensure every child gets the support they need to succeed, and we can recruit and retain sufficient numbers of teachers.”

To arrange interview: Duncan McDonald 0407 284 808 or Nick Lucchinelli 0422 229 032