Defend public education!

Public education is under permanent attack. At the same time as the Rudd government continues Coalition policies of funding obscenely privileged private schools, State labor governments try to introduce staffing policies that will discriminate against the poorest and remotest schools (NSW), and to implement unjust salary systems that discriminate against newer, lower-paid teachers (Victoria). Join the Socialist Alliance in the fight for well-funded, quality public education!

A letter of support to NSW Teachers from the Socialist Alliance

The NSW ALP Government has moved to abolish the state-wide system that provides qualified and trained teachers for every public school and for every student from the beginning of term 2. The changes will undermine teachers’ working conditions by narrowing their transfer rights and will inevitably increase the gap between the wealthy and the poor as schools and teachers compete against each other for the so-called “best teachers”.

Principals now have the power to hire at a local level eroding the scheme that has allowed teachers on a central employment list to transfer across and around the state for the last ten years. This model has ensured that schools in remote, rural and “hard to staff” areas were able to attract and retain teachers. It underpinned the delivery of curriculum, guaranteeing consistency for students and employment security and professional development opportunities for teachers.

Attacks on the union

The government plan also removes the right for teachers to be represented in the selection process by their union delegate. The role and profile of the Teachers Federation in schools will be greatly diminished.

Socialist Alliance supports teachers’ rights to security of tenure and the right to be represented by their union – the NSW Teachers Federation – in the workplace and beyond.

Socialist Alliance shares teachers’ concerns that this maneuver is the first step in the same direction as the devolution and deregulation agenda of previous ALP and Coalition state governments.

This has been totally rejected by teachers. It is a thinly veiled move toward the introduction of fixed term contracts and performance-based pay for teachers.

Socialist Alliance stands side by side with teachers in defending the value of a free, secular and well funded public education system. We totally reject the notion that chronically under funded public schools must ‘compete’ in an ‘education market’.

Socialist Alliance condemns the NSW government’s pro-private sector agenda that decreases funding to public education and other social services. Their agenda promotes the “user pay” concept that reduces education to nothing more than a commodity to be purchased by those with the most money.

Socialist Alliance calls on the NSW government to increase funding to the public school system, recommence negotiations with the Teachers federation and cease all attacks on teachers’ working conditions.

NSWTF campaign

If teachers are to restore the state-wide transfer system, which was effectively abolished by the NSW government at the beginning of term 2, the campaign will have to intensify. The 24 hour strike and the ongoing actions at individual schools have been a good start, but won’t win the fight by itself.

The Federation needs to increase pressure on the NSW government to reinstate the statewide transfer system in its entirety. Socialist Alliance would support a 48 hour strike early in term 3.

Socialist Alliance supports a sustained industrial campaign that links country schools, city and coastal schools in coordinated and sustained statewide action.

The NSW government’s insulting offer of 2.5% a year over three years must also be rejected. The NSWTF must join with the Firefighters, Nurses and other public sector unions campaigning for wage justice. A united campaign would undercut the government’s attempt to divide public sector workers and defeat us separately.

Socialist Alliance calls for a united industrial campaign of all public sector unions aimed at rejecting the NSW government’s 2.5% pay offer to all public sector workers (really a pay cut, with inflation running at over 4%!).

In order to leave decisions in the hands of the members, Socialist Alliance also calls on the NSWTF to support mass delegates meetings involving unions across the state public sector to plan and execute the campaign.

Socialist Alliance believes that the campaign to maintain teacher education qualifications for TAFE teachers needs to continue. Teachers are also campaigning against TAFE fees increases and are determined to maintain a quality accessible TAFE system with proper funding and teachers with professional qualifications.

Teachers' campaigns in other states:

Victorian Teacher's Alliance website

SA teachers to defy IRC bans

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There are 5 comments on this article

By QuinnTheLegend

I am a student at a Public school in SA, and although our school has a waiting list, - reallly don't understand why. there are a few good teachers, especially in specialised subjects, however there are also some teachers who automatically discrimante some work from some of our students because of a lack of communication between teahcers. for example, i wrote and essay in english, and my teacher, who shall remain anonymous, is one of the best teachers in the state, and i scored a perfect 20. Yet, with my Australian Stuidies class, my fresh-out-of-uni teacher fave me a 12/20 because apparently it was set-out wrong.

I am all for teachers getting paid more, but how can they expect support from students when such things are occuring.

By Captain Capitalism

This web sites discrimination against private schooling is ill-founded. If individuals want a religious or spiritual themed education then the government should support these institutions to provide a balanced education education for all.

Its also worth noting a well funded and supported public system alleviates stress on the public system by lowering the amount of students the public system has to educate.

In conclusion the public system needs a well funded private system and a well funded private system provides greater choice for all.

By Peter

When Howard came to power in 1996, 43 per cent of federal grants to all schools went to the public schools responsible for educating more than two-thirds of all students. By the time he left office last year, total grants had doubled in real terms to $10 billion a year. But whereas real grants to public schools grew by 68 per cent over the period, grants to private schools grew by 137 per cent. The effect was to cut the public schools' share of the kitty to 35 per cent. It is public education that has been discriminated against!

By hegemony&socialist_strategy

Having been a teacher in a Christian school (and being a Christian+teacher myself) AND commited to radical [social] democracy, I take it that the government funding of these schools is not necessarily a 'good' thing for religious communities themselves.

Apart from the obvious issues of distributive justice vis-a-vis public schools (which is a very important issue itself), government funding also undermines the counter-hegemonic impulses in these schools/religions. Getting govt funding requires religious schools to sign up to a whole raft of 'requirements' to ensure that they are in fact "good" for Australia.

Does this then serve to underwrite the social order "as it is"; creating a syncretistic religious schooling system bereft of its 'prophetic' (social critique) function?

The catch 22 of govt funding of private religious schools is that they cease to be very religious in any substantive sense - e.g. when everyone has to gather around the flag to sing the national anthem - and what we might end up with are schools that are purportedly different only in label, and education becomes like the kind of agony one experiences in a supermarket over what brand of pet food to buy in an array of inane chices.

By Lola

People should leave their religious beliefs out of the school, learn about Jesus all you want at home. Learn about facts at school; then when you get home you can read about magical fairies up in the clouds all you want.

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