Tasmanian Teachers will be joined by key stakeholders TasCOSS and parent peak body TASSO, on World Teachers Day, to help launch a new campaign calling on governments to fully fund public schools. Called For Every Child, part of the campaign is a national road trip which will include visits to schools and community events collecting signed postcards to the PM calling on him to deliver full funding for public schools.

In Tasmania not a single public school is funded to an agreed basic benchmark level, called the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).

“Every day I hear stories of students not getting access to the educational supports they need because schools are under-resourced,” said David Genford, AEU Tasmania President.

“We are calling on the Rockliff and Albanese Governments to commit to fund all public schools in Tasmania to the Schooling Resource Standard – delivering money that would help reduce class sizes, address student wellbeing and boost much-needed in-class support,” Mr Genford said.

The Schooling Resource Standard is a benchmark level of funding that governments agreed was the minimum needed to enable schools to deliver a basic education to the majority of students.

Not a single Tasmanian public school is funded to the benchmark level, denying $118 million per year to our schools which equates to, on average, $2000 per student.

“This is significant funding that our students are being denied and it would make a world of difference to the level of educational supports that schools could provide students,” he said.

Specifically, the AEU is calling on the Commonwealth Government to increase its share of funding of the Schooling Resource Standard from 20% to at least 25%, by 2028 at the latest. The state government must agree to deliver its share of SRS funding into schools, and not divert it to pay the cost of such things as regulatory bodies.

The Albanese government must also create a permanent capital works fund, of at least $350 million annually, for public schools to provide states and territories with funding for new and upgraded schools.

AEU Tasmania President David Genford will board the ferry and take the campaign car to Canberra to join others in delivering the signed postcards to the PM in late November.

Further information Harriet Binet, AEU Tasmania, 0427 841 760