Victorian teachers and school staff protested the Jacinta Allan government’s decision to delay at least $2.4 billion in promised funding for public schools, which was to be delivered in 2028. Isaac Nellist spoke to Adam Bremner, Victorian public school teacher, Australian Education Union (AEU) member and Socialist Alliance member, about the impact of this funding cut on teachers and students.
Can you describe the challenges teachers face?
We are in the middle of a teacher shortage. A lot are leaving the profession after becoming burnt out, because they are finding they can’t put up with teaching conditions long term. New teachers are leaving the job after three to five years, and a lot of the older teachers are leaving before they are eligible to retire.
This knowledge gap in the industry has a lot of flow-on effects.
Some programs have been developed to try and fix the teacher shortage. For example, the Permission to Teach (PTT) program allows fourth year teaching students to experience in the classroom while they study. They fill positions left vacant by staff shortages. This means that inexperienced teachers are in the classroom taking the load of experienced teachers who have left. It doesn’t fix the problem; it just pushes it down the road.
Many PTT teachers become really stressed out. Instead of being eased into the teaching profession, they come in with high expectations, and have to teach and study at the same time. Their pay is lower than first-level graduate teachers, so they don’t receive much money and are really overworked.
It means experienced teachers have to take on mentoring roles to support new teachers through their early careers, adding to their already excessive workload.
The previous enterprise agreement set tight boundaries on teachers’ work hours, trying to make sure we only work 38 hours a week. (Teachers often work longer hours out of school.) However, it didn’t address the amount of work teachers have to do to teach.
Teachers have to do a lot of administration paperwork which that doesn’t help with putting together lessons. It sucks up time that could be used for marking and improving teaching practice. It distracts teachers from their key role — which should be working with students.
How does Victoria compare with other states?
Victoria is one of the best-educated states with some of the best teachers. Our universities put out some of the best students. But we are the lowest paid in the country.
We have teachers who work in border towns and, when they cross the border to work in another state five minutes down the road, they receive better pay. Even though we teach a very similar curriculum, based on the national curriculum, the discrepancy in pay is tens of thousands of dollars.
What had Victorian Labor promised and what has it delivered?
The AEU has for years been pushing for Labor to meet the full Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) funding and both the federal and state governments agreed to give us the 100% with 75% from the state and 25% from the federal government.
Since then, in the latest state budget on May 20, we have learnt that Victorian Labor has pushed back its contribution to 2031 and during the election we learnt that the federal funding will be delayed to 2035. That works out to be $663 million a year cut in public school funding, about a $2.4 billion cut.
That’s going to have a huge impact on teachers and lots of students will be disadvantaged. They will not be getting the high-quality resources they need to excel.
While Labor is pushing back funding to the SRS, the minimum a child needs to achieve the minimum level of education, we should be aiming well above this if we want a world class education system.
It’s been 17 years since [] was originally proposed, which means at least three generations of students have gone through school without benefitting from full funding. We need more money for stationary and other day-to-day things. Many teachers are spending their own money on pencils.
We also desperately need more teachers and support staff.
What do you think should be done about the big funding disparity between private and public schools?
Having taught in the private system for many years I discovered that teachers don’t realise that private school teachers are paid roughly the same as public school teachers.
People often send their children to private schools because they think the teachers are better paid and therefore more skilled. In reality, they are just as good as any public school teacher.
Private schools advertise that they have something to offer that public schools don’t, which is not true. A private school recently held an open day for students and teachers, to attract more teachers. They were showing off high-end computers and virtual reality headsets, equipment that is unnecessary for a classroom but which creates an image that the school is superior.
Parent and alumni donations to private schools are tax write-offs and schools use this to lower their income for tax purposes. This means parents are using private schools to improve their own financial situation.
Private and public donations to private schools makes them more attractive because they have newer classrooms and facilities such as swimming pools and football fields.
Labor should stop allocating public money to private schools that should be going to public schools.
Hundreds of teachers and school staff protested outside Victoria’s education minister Ben Carroll’s electorate office on June 19. How else are teachers pushing back against Labor’s public school funding cuts and can others offer support?
Teachers should talk to their school councils about motions to support the union campaign. There will also be more street action. We are in the middle of discussing our log of claims before the next enterprise bargaining period.
Our previous agreement included a tiny pay rise of 1%, two times a year, which was far below inflation. Our next EB will be focused on pay even though we know Labor will claim it doesn’t have the money to pay us wages we deserve.
Teachers are really angry. We are angry for our students, we are angry for us and we are angry that this government doesn’t take care of the people that take care of others.