Education takes brunt of budget spending cut
Wednesday, 30 June 2010 09:54
Shadow Education Minister Dr Bruce Flegg told parliament today that education had borne the brunt of government spending cuts in response to the State government debt crisis.
The total State Education budget increased by only a little over half the rate of increase of State government budget spending. The 3.6% increase in Education spending shows a significant reduction in the share of the State budget allocated to Education, considering the State budget as a whole grew by 6.25%. In fact, over the past five years Education has dropped from over 25% of the budget to only 23.4%.
Put another way, the total increase in Education spending will just cover the increase in staff wages as a result of wage rises and enrolment growth. Beyond covering these staffing costs, there is not one extra cent in this year’s Education budget for anything else. This means that all forms of student and teacher support, and resourcing will decrease in real terms.
A famous American educator said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” I don’t see how with less resources, teachers and students can be expected to manage the huge changes underway in education such as National Curriculum.
The budget per child in primary school increased by only half a percent from last year and the budget for students in State secondary schools has reduced by $400 per child. We are supposed to be the Smart State.
Children with disabilities
This year’s budget sees a marked wind back in the commitment to children with disabilities. Over the past year we have closed four special schools (reduced from 47 to 43) despite enrolments in special schools having increased from 3,325 to 3,390.
Students with disabilities who need specialist support enrolled in State schools have skyrocketed from 19,090 to 20,230.
In the most alarming figures, whilst 93% of parents with a student in Special Schools were satisfied with the treatment they received, parental satisfaction of disabled children in general State Schools fell dramatically to only 78.2%, well below the State government’s own target of 84%.
Despite $28,127 on average being budgeted for each child with a serious disability last year, the actual amount spent was $1,000 per child less and next year’s budget strips yet another $140 per child.
I recently visited one of Queensland’s special schools and came away with enormous admiration for the job being done by our teachers. These children have severe physical and intellectual impairments that affect their maturity and their behaviour as well as physical dependence on the teacher who is caring for them.
I don’t see how we can be extracting so much out of the budget for Special Education. The government’s response, sadly, has been to announce that from next year’s budget they will cease publishing the above performance measures.