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Cuts prompt return of community actionSchool communities are mobilising against Baillieu’s cuts.newsSian Watkins AEU NewsFRUSTRATED parents and staffare uniting to fight the StateGovernment’s deep cuts to schoolfunding that have resulted in theabandonment of proposed newschools and the rebuilding of decrepitschools.As AEU News went to press,protests are planned or underwayat Thomastown West Primary Schooland Portarlington PS. Newspaper andradio coverage last month about thelack of heating at GreensboroughSecondary College helped it get the$187,000 needed to upgrade its old,overloaded electrical system.Cuts to building projects followingthe Coalition’s first budget come asa member of the taskforce investigatingthe federal BER programsaid Australia needed a $40 billionmaster plan program to improve theappalling state of the nation’s publicschool buildings.Investment banker MalcolmMcComas told the federal schoolsfunding review he was shocked by thedecrepit state of government primaryschools that taskforce membersvisited last year.“It’s no surprise that retentionrates are low, that school teachermorale is low, and that academicand extra-curricular achievement arefailing many students,” he told TheAge newspaper.In Portarlington, a rally organisedby parents last month attracted 200people and local media coverage,with AEU vice president Justin Mullalyamong the speakers.The 150-student school was18 months into planning a completerebuild, with $6 million promisedby the Labor Government last year.But the school got nothing in theCoalition’s May budget.Most of its buildings are old andleak and the original 1872 schoolhouse“desperately needs work onit”, said principal Denise Simons. “Wewere well down the planning processand that process should be continuedregardless of who’s in power,” shesaid. “We do lose enrolments becauseof the substandard buildings.”At Thomastown West, in the top10% of Victoria’s most disadvantagedschools, the school council willseek media attention to highlight theEducation Department’s decision notto deliver all buildings promised aspart of the school’s $7.2m rebuild.Six months into construction, theschool has been told it will not get fournew portable buildings, a multi-purposebuilding or completed landscaping dueto “project cost overruns”.The school will be left with a largeconcrete slab in its midst — foundationsfor the intended multi-purposebuilding. “The architects told us tocover it with Tiger Turf and let the kidsplay on it,” said school council vicepresident Marie Costanzo (picturedright). “What? With plumbing pipesand cables protruding from it?“We postponed telling the widerparent community because we knewthere would be a great deal of angerand disappointment. If we weren’t in asafe Labor seat this wouldn’t happen.”The school’s 315 students,many from refugee families, aresqueezed into portables at the backof Thomastown SC while part of theirnew school is built.The school council believes that$1m or less is required to completethe school and that the “costoverruns”were incurred in removingsub-soil rock.The school was losing “a vitalindoor space that had great potentialas a meeting place for parents andcommunity groups,” Ms Costanzosaid, while the cuts to the landscapingwould “leave the place still looking likea building site”.◆Prepare to fight Abbott over fundingMEMBERS must be prepared to fight for improved public school funding inthe face of a possible Abbott government, Angelo Gavrielatos has told theunion’s annual conference.The AEU federal president said the union had won the argument for a fairdeal for government schools in the face of heavy and well-funded lobbying froma private schools sector “hell-bent on trying to maintain its position of relativeprivilege”. Despite hopes of a favourable set of recommendations from theschool funding review chaired by David Gonski, the fight was not nearly over.“This (Gillard) government could fall at any moment — all of its ownmaking,” he told conference earlier this month. “What will come of theserecommendations should there be an Abbott government? If there is a set ofrecommendations worthy of our support, we will need to embrace them andbecome defenders of them and make it impossible for the Government andmost importantly Abbott to turn away from them. That will be very hard becausewhat Abbott and (Christopher) Pyne have made very clear is that they intend toextend the privilege and privatisation of education.”The review panel is this month expected to issue analysis papers beforeformal recommendations later this year. ◆— Nic BarnardWe’re there for the AMWUAssisting AEU Members for over 30 yearsAdviceLine Injury Lawyers division can assist you – no win, no charge – with:• Work injury compensation – physical and psychological injury• Road and transport accident injury compensation• Medical negligence• Asbestos injuriesHolding Redlich also offers special arrangements for AEU members for:• Employment and discrimination law• Family law services• Conveyancing• Wills and estate planningContact us directly on 9321 9988 or 1300 MY INJURY or contact your AEU organiser for a referral.Visit www.advicelineinjurylawyers.com.au or www.holdingredlich.com.au today.www.aeuvic.asn.au 5