Note from Bob Such

Dear Colin

Thank you for your email re cuts to State schools in South Australia.

I have consistently opposed cuts to State schools - indeed I have argued for an increase in funding. I am a passionate supporter of our State schools and accordingly will continue to fight reductions in their funding.

For the last 15 years or so our State schools have been treated as second class educational establishments with a lack of funding for capital works and other educational resources. The private school section has received very generous capital grants whilst the State school sector misses out. The argument of "choice" is exaggerated - you only have a choice if you have the money to access private schools, especially the more expensive ones.

Rest assured, I will keep fighting for State schools.

Kind regards

Bob Such MP
Member for Fisher

Super Schools Not so Super for Existing Schools

Much of the long term strategy for public education appears to be bigger means better.

This is from the State Budget in 2006. All was rosy. No talk of the pain which was heading the way of the public school sector. A one size fits all strategy is not very sustainable.

Six super schools will be built across the metropolitan area as part of a new $216 million education program to be unveiled in tomorrow's state Budget.

The six schools, which will cater for students from kindergarten to Year 12, will replace existing schools, which are facing falling enrolments and increasing maintenance costs.

Premier Mike Rann and Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith announced the move today, saying two of the schools would be built in the Smithfield Plains-Playford North area, two in the Woodville Gardens-Mansfield Park area, and two in the Enfield-Gepps Cross area.

They will replace up to 17 schools such as Smithfield Plains High School, Davoren Park Kindergarten, Gepps Cross Girls High School and Regency Park Special School.

The schools will be built as public private partnership projects with the private sector building them and leasing them back to the Government.

The private sector builders would remain responsible for maintenance of the schools.

However, Mr Rann and Dr Lomax-Smith said there would be no forced school closures and there would be full consultation with the communities involved.

"Under our plan, there will be schools that decide to close, some schools will decide to combine and others will be reconfigured," Mr Rann said.

Mr Rann said this was the most significant reform agenda of the state's school infrastructure in more than 30 years.

"Plenty of other communities will take up the offer if these schools don't," Dr Lomax-Smith said.

She said the aim of the plan was to have the new super schools opened by 2011.

Also under the plan, $24.8 million will be spent to establish 10 hi-tech trade schools for the future, $23.3 million to bring to 20 the number of children's centres offering childcare, school and health services, and $45.5 million for 20 major capital works projects.

Dr Lomax-Smith said that under the capital works program, the Government would look at the feasibility of future capital works in a further 15 state schools.

The education funding cuts appear to me to be designed to put pressure on smaller schools to amalgamate and in the short term, to reduce the operating budgets of these schools, which in turn will reduce the appeal of these schools to parents, who will withdraw kids and potentially put them in private schools. This has already happened with rural schools. Now it is the turn of other schools. This not so virtuous cycle is not very appealling.

Building the Mike Rann, Dr Jane Lomax Smith, Kevin Foley Super Schools may be good in the longer term, but why do we need an immediate efficiency dividend to fund these potential white elephants?

Suggestions from Liz Penfold, Member for Flinders

Dear Colin,
Your frustration sounds very like mine. I likened what is happening to stealing from your childs piggy bank and suggested that the water saving that are required may mean the come back of the long drop!

I have more than 70 schools and educational institutions in my electorate and I am expecting that these costs that vary up to $70 to $80,000 per school will mean that possibly 10 or more will have to close as they will not be ably to achieve the economies of scale that are required. How far can you send a five year old on a bus particularly now we are going to have even longer daylight saving when they already have to get up in the dark. Even interest from savings is being taken and the senior first aid is no longer going to be paid for or compulsory which when you have two schools that are out in paddocks and even the nearest hospital doesn't have a doctor and the ambulance is manned by volunteers you will appreciate my concern. If the children get to go on camps which because of our distances are very expensive to go anywhere and the funding cut mean that this is unlikely, they won't be able to because there will be no one that has a senior first aid certificate to go with them.

I suggest that you write letters as you have, go on radio talk back where you can, sign and distribute one of the many petitions that are being circulated and go to rallies wherever possible and please don't forget those who live in the remote country areas like Eyre Peninsula where we are also looking at having 8 hospitals down graded and left without doctors.

Regards,
Liz Penfold
Member for Flinders
P: (08) 8683 0722
F: (08) 8682 5912
liz.penfold@parliament.sa.gov.au
www.lizpenfold.com

Education Cuts - The State Labor Governments Pasha Bulker

The Rann Government is going to need more than the Thunderbirds to get rid of their Education Funding Cuts Albatross.



Let's have a salvage operation before the Public Education System hits the rocks.

And This is the Word of The Martin Hamilton Smith

Premier Rann’s backflip on the Schools Tax means other cuts are likely.

Savings initiatives listed in the last two Budgets were hailed as the base on which the Rann government was rolling out its Super School reform program.

“So what’s next,” asked Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith.
“If they say they need the cuts to fund the reforms, either the reforms are gone, or there will be cuts elsewhere,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.

“You can be sure this government will try what they first attempted last September – cuts by stealth.”

Cuts listed in the Budget papers include:
• Remove benefit of interest earnings on bank accounts.
• Water efficiency measures where schools are allocated 25% less.
• Unattached teachers funding.
• Energy funding cuts.
• Small programs.
• Grant payments.

The projected total of these cuts over the next three budgets is $165 million.

“What a mess the government has made of its budget planning,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.
“The so-called savings initiatives are now in disarray and we can assume that the whole education strategy is in tatters – all in less than a month since the last Budget was handed down.
“It’s another sign the budget is a shipwreck looking for a rock to hit.”

Pasha Bulker Eat Your Heart Out. The Rann Government has their own Shipwreck waiting to happen.

Statement from Martin Hamilton Smith

CAUGHT AND CLEAN BOWLED – LOMAX-SMITH OUT

Revelations today that Premier Mike Rann has again over-ruled his Education Minister means it’s time she was dumped from Cabinet.

Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith made the call after the Premier’s announcement the government’s attempt to slip in a tax on schools had been exposed and reversed.

“Jane Lomax-Smith told parliament just last week that the decision to impose a WorkCover levy on schools was a “savings target” that would be “re-directed into education,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.
“She also claimed the levy was part of a massive reform agenda in education,” he said.
“Poor old Jane – she’s out their defending her way of running education and then the Premier jumps over her and says they got it wrong.
“They must be getting sick of her by now – if it’s not a personal exemption on parklands policy, it’s a stuff up in education.
“It’s time for the Minister to shuffle off to the backbench.”
Mr Hamilton-Smith said the back flip was another sign the budget strategy was unravelling at a rate of knots.
“Their wages strategy is in chaos with doctors, dentists and nurses and others in the middle of industrial action,” he said.
“Now the education strategy is in tatters and the budget is barely a few weeks old.
“It’s an embarrassment for Treasurer Foley, Premier Rann and the now wounded Jane Lomax-Smith.”

Sounds About Right.

Guided Reading A Very Valuable Program

My daughter has been doing Guided Reading at school for three years now. The school made an investment in developing the program and has seen a regular improvement in reading capabilities throughout the school. Literacy levels are higher in standard testing. These improvements have been directly correlated to the implementation of this program.

Basically kids of the same reading level work together in small groups with a trained leader to develop reading skills. Hannah has worked hard with this and we believe that it has made a huge difference to her confidence in school.

To lose or to reduce a succesful program like this would be a tragedy. Currently options to address budget cuts include reducing Guided Reading to one day a week from three. What a short term budget cutting disaster for young children just getting going with reading.