The I Give A Gonski campaign bus is making its rounds stopping in both Singleton and Newcastle today bringing with it a message to the federal government - to not cut Gonski funding to schools.
The Gonski model is designed to bring every school up to the minimum educational resource standard by 2019, but so far only a third of the funding has been allocated.
By the end of this year, only 36% of funding will have been delivered to schools.
The funding has drastically benefited schools in the Hunter region including Singleton high school who has received $1.2 million in the four years the funding has been available.
Singleton Public School have benefited too, with $301, 000 being delivered to the school over four years.
"Somehow we can afford to give a $50 billion tax cut to corporations when we can't afford a few billion dollars to educate our children even when we know that 248, 000 children in this country with diagnosed disabilities are not receiving one dollar of additional funding, we're going to say no to these children? So to me it defies believe politicians can't put themselves above party politics," said New South Wales Teachers Federation President Maurie Mulheron.
The federal government are planning to stop the Gonski funding from December this year, and instead replace it with a needs-based model which the NSW Teaching Federation have labelled as unacceptable.
The state government, including both the coalition and ALP are delivering their share of the Gonski funding, but it needs to be replicated at a federal level for the funding to continue.
 |
| Joel Fitzgibbon MP and Jason Clare MP in Singleton this morning. |
Federal member for the Hunter Joel Fitzgibbon joined forces with Federal member for Blaxland Jason Clare at Singleton High school today supporting the I Give a Gonski bus campaign.
"The quality of your education shouldn't be determined by where you live or what your parents can afford. Malcom Turnbull's cuts to schools threatens the future of local kids - it shows again how out of touch he is. He'd rather give big banks and other coporates a tax cut than invest in better schools for all Australian kids," Jason Clare said.
The Gonski campaign bus tour started on March 1st and will finish with a protest outside Parliament House in Canberra on March 22nd.
