Education Policy Summary

Campaigning for Public Schools & TAFE

The Greens enthusiastically support strong, innovative and vibrant public education, because only the public system can provide high quality education to all students, regardless of their socio-economic status,  religious or ethnic background or level of ability. The social and economic success of future generations depends on restoring optimism to public education.

Public education and its values are under direct attack from the Howard government. The Iemma/Carr government has failed to protect them and has not provided adequate funding.

Over the last four years, Greens members of the NSW Upper House have worked hard to make public education a national priority. They have supported teachers’ salary claims, opposed private school funding rorts and the private school for profit rip-off, worked for more ESL teachers and resources for children with special needs, and made equity funding a priority. They campaigned for more funding for TAFE and fairer treatment of part-time casual teachers.

The Greens Education Policy calls for:

• increased salary and status for teachers to ensure a long term supply of high quality teachers and to redress salary injustice;
• two years of free public pre-schooling for all children;
• an additional 200 English as a Second Language teachers;
• greatly increased resources and support in public schools for children with special needs, including disabilities and learning and behavioural difficulties;
• increased resources for public schools to fix the maintenance and capital works backlog, support early career teachers, and reduce class sizes in the early years of high school;
• funding to enhance equity and to support schools serving disadvantaged communities, by reducing class sizes, improved facilities and Aboriginal education programs;
• keeping public schools in public hands and opposing the sale of public school lands;
• an end to the public funding of the wealthiest private schools and to the growth in the combined state and federal funding of all other private schools;
• stopping the public funding of corporate-owned private schools operated for profit;
• additional funds to TAFE to increase per student expenditure, meet growing demand, end all fees and charges, and restore class sizes and course contact hours; and
• an end to exploitation of part time casual TAFE teachers and stopping the growth in public funding of private providers of vocational education and training.