State Budget disappoints

Today's NSW State Budget seems to be a re-announcement of previously released initiatives.

Today's NSW State Budget relating to education seems to be primarily a re-announcement of previously released initiatives. It also seems that well over $2 billion in money from the Rudd government has been included to disguise the fact that there has been little or no increase in funding from the state government over last year's expenditure of $11.8 billion.

The Learn or Earn initiative, for example, was announced in the 2008/9 State Budget, with precisely the same outcomes over four years as stated in today's budget.

The 2008 Budget media release said:

'The Learn or Earn initiative will receive funding of $84 million over 4 years in recurrent and capital funding to provide for:

• An extra 5850 training places in TAFE NSW;
• 15 additional trade schools across schools and TAFE;
• Expansion of the Group Training Program to employ an extra 3500 apprentices.'

• an extra 5,850 training places at TAFE NSW;
• the establishment of 15 additional trade schools across schools and TAFE; and
• an expansion of the Group Training Program to employ an extra 3,500 apprentices.'

It is now unclear whether or not the timeline has been extended by one year to achieve the same outcomes, or just that no steps were taken to implement last year's commitment.

Although these are difficult economic times, it is particularly disappointing that the State Government has failed to provide additional funds to support the recruitment and retention of beginning teachers, including release time and teacher mentor support.

This is despite the fact that the NSW Auditor-General last year stated that one-third of the public school teaching service will reach retirement age by 2012 and one-half by 2016. The Government's inaction at this time is likely to contribute to a teacher shortage in coming years for students already enrolled in our schools.

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http://www.nswtf.org.au/media/latest_2009/20090616_Budget2009.html
Last Modified: 17 Jun 2009