February 7, 2011
THE Victorian Education Department is facing budget cuts of almost $350 million over the next 4˝ years.
Opposition education spokesman Rob Hulls said department officials had told him at a briefing last week they had been ordered to find $338 million in savings, including $36 million by June 30.
''Here we go again - one of the Liberal government's first decisions is to hack into the education budget,''
Mr Hulls said. ''These are substantial cutbacks … they have decided to turn their back on the state school system.''
The Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals said the cuts were particularly galling given
the Coalition would increase funding to non-government schools by $240 million over the next four years
, starting from the beginning of the 2011 school year.
''I can't understand why more money is going to the private sector when we have so many government schools that need to be brought up to scratch,'' said president Frank Sal.
''Clearly from a government secondary perspective, I'd be very concerned if they are cutting any dollars from the government school sector.''
The Coalition spokesman said savings would be made by reducing expenditure on media, marketing, advertising, political opinion polling, external consultants and legal advisers, the size of ministerial offices and travel expenses.
''Savings … will be made across all departments without cuts to public servants,'' he said.
But the Victorian president of the Australian Education Union, Mary Bluett, said
any suggestion that funding cuts would not affect schools was nonsense.
''I can't see where the cuts can come from - Victoria already has the leanest education bureaucracy in the nation,'' she said. ''They want to cut $338 million from the education budget at a time when every other state and territory is increasing their funding for education.''
OPPOSITION leader Ted Baillieu has backed the former Kennett government's controversial school closures, putting him at odds with his own education spokesman.
Shadow education spokesman Martin Dixon has said some of the schools that were shut down probably should have remained open.
"I think we got it wrong in some suburbs," he told The Age.
Three hundred schools were closed and 8000 teachers sacked by the Kennett government, which held power from 1992 until 1999.