Letter from Lolly Jar Thief Number 1

TRS07D1353

Date: 28 August 2007

Mr Colin Campbell

clutterbells@gmail.com

Dear Mr Campbell

Thank you for your e-mail dated 17 August 2007 regarding funding for the public education

sector.

The State Government recognises that education is the key to young South Australians

gaining the skills, values and attributes they need to contribute to our community in the 21

st

Century.

The 2006-07 Budget introduced a range of savings measures across all portfolios of

government. These savings measures were introduced to provide additional spending

capacity for high priority areas including education. Recent commitments by the Government

that have demonstrated this include:

Brand new schools as part of a $216 million Education Works investment in better school

buildings and learning environments;

Investment of $28.8 million to develop an additional 10 ‘one stop’ children’s centres

bringing the total number of these centres to 20;

Support of $29.5 million for the provision of 10 new trade schools to foster practical work

skills;

As part of the ‘school to work’ strategy, $54.5 million to implement a new senior

secondary ‘SACE’ qualification; and

Increased investment in literacy and numeracy, and smaller class sizes in the early

years.

The 2007-08 Budget continues our commitment to the education system with increased

spending on education and children’s services of $127.2 million compared to the 2006-07

Budget. The 2007-08 Budget provides, on average, an additional $708 for every government

school student when compared to the previous year, an increase of 6.7%. Since 2001-02,

spending on each student has increase by $3,606. In this context, the savings measures

represent a relatively small rearrangement of funding within a context of very large increases

in spending per student.

I thank you for your interest in our public schools and children’s services.

Yours sincerely

Kevin Foley MP

DEPUTY PREMIER

TREASURER