Vice-President Terry Fisher and Treasurer Rob Walker attended the launch of the Fairer Schools Funding campaign at Parliament House Canberra on Tuesday March 23. Rob provided the following information:

The campaign is being led by the AEU and has the support of each state teachers’ union representing public education. There were around 120 principals, teachers, parents and union members in attendance. They were from the 18 targeted seats – flown in from all parts of Australia. NSWTF President Maurie Mulheron, NSWSPC President Chris Presland and NSW Federation of P&Cs President Susie Boyd were also in attendance. Media captured clips from principals, teachers and parents and the leadership of the organisations where they told the story of the difference the Gonski funding is making for kids in our schools and the difference the missing funding would make.

Parliamentarians present included Bill Shorten, Tanya Plibersek, Mark Dreyfus, Richard Di Natale, Sarah Hansen-Young and Lee Rhiannon – there were quite a number of others in attendance from Labor and the Greens. After the launch we moved into Parliament House where a group (including Terry and Rob) attended a Labor Caucus meeting and spoke in a more detailed manner of the difference the funding is making. Following this we broke to meet with local members. I met with the Deputy Speaker of the House, initially with a colleague, parent & union organiser, and then individually for about half an hour. I had some excellent data on the change in results of kids in school directly brought about by the Gonski funding and put this together with data we have on how schools have used the money plus some clarity on what our concerns are regarding the current funding arrangements. This last point – the clarity about our concerns, was particularly well received and there were a number of questions so that the key issues we are tabling could be identified.

The igiveagonski website has been re-branded to Fairer Schools Funding. The major push remains the delivery of the original Gonski – a needs based, sector blind funding model that sees the schools resource standard delivered to 100% for each child. We need all principals to keep their school communities informed of the use to which the funds are being put and the difference the missing funding would make (we have received only 36% of the Federal Government full Gonski commitment which is delivering only 17.5% of the SRS to students of public schools). The Federal Government have committed to lift their contribution to 20% of the SRS for each school over the next 6 years. It’s a very long way short of what is required. Principals are asked to support community members in attending meetings with local members explaining the difference the funding is making and the difference the missing funding would make. This is particularly important as we are moving toward a Federal election.