The Australian Education Union Victoria (AEU) told its members in the first week of June it was ready to fight Jacinta Allan’s Labor government for the full funding that it promised public schools.
In months leading to the May 3 election, state and federal Labor parties were promising to restore full School Resourcing Standards (SRS) funding, 75% of which was to come from federal Labor and 25% from Victorian Labor.
It has since been discovered that the funding has been delayed, saving Allan government money while costing students learning opportunities.
The Gonski Review of Funding for Schooling, introduced 14 years ago and which set out a new education funding model, was intended to fix the gross discrepancy between state and independent school funding. Gonski’s recommendations were far from perfect, including recommending the continued public funding of elite private schools. But they did highlight the need for an immediate injection of funds into public schools.
Funding delays continue, as years of government neglect of the public education system are widening the gap between public and private schools.
According to the AEU, the Department of Education has provided evidence to parliament’s Public Affairs and Estimates Committee which reveals that public school students are “being cheated by $663 million each year” by Allan’s government.
“Victoria’s public schools are the lowest funded in the country, and our teachers are the lowest paid,” the AUE said.
Labor has let slip that the full school resource standard funding for schools will be delayed to 2031. That means a wave of secondary students will go through the system without being able to access any of the benefit from the promised funding.
The Victorian Greens said on June 5 that this equates to a $2.4 billion cut to public schools. The party has given an open letter to the Premier demanding she immediately reinstate the promised funding.
On the backs of years of underfunding, continued inadequate funding will only widen the gap between public and private schools and exacerbate the crisis of low teacher numbers.
The Greens moved in the Legislative Council on June 4 for a committee to look into the impact of the delay of Gonski funding with a report to be tabled by April 2026.
Meanwhile, AEU members have spent the past month finalising their regional log of claims for coming enterprise agreement negotiations with the government, in which the Gonski funding deficit is the context.
The AEU has organised a protest outside Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll’s electorate office in Keilor on June 19 at 4.15pm to push for change.