Who gives a Gonski for Indigenous Education?
Answer: three Australian states and the Australian Senate which yesterday passed the Australian Education Reform bill, aka the Gonski plan.
This is a wonderful achievement. Funding based on children’s needs. At last, schools with lots of disadvantaged Indigenous children can get funding by right and not by favour. We owe great thanks to Julia Gillard and Peter Garrett for making this happen.
The Opposition doesn’t give a Gonski in theory, the Labor leadership spillers didn’t give a Gonski in practice. Five states and territories haven’t signed up, violating Paul Keating’s maxim “Never stand between a premier and a bucket of money”? Why? Cynicism suggests that they don’t want to commit to transparent spending of state money on disadvantaged schools, when they could be pork-barrelling constituents in other ways and in other electorates.
The Australian Education Reform Bill is the visionary policy that should [have won/win] the Labor Party the next election.
Meanwhile, the NT – one of the jurisdiction that doesn’t give a Gonski – is apparently actually cutting teaching numbers to the same level of 30 years ago! http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-25/budget-estimates-chandler-on-education-gonski-teacher-cuts/4778406
Absolute madness. And the NT Govt supposedly supports bilingual education? Not sure how that’s going to happen without enough teachers and resources…