“In an extraordinary fashion the Australian government teachers’ spokesperson has effectively called for job cuts in the non-government school sector” said IEU Federal Secretary Chris Watt.
“Despite the clear evidence that the OECD data indicates the need for more funding for all Australian schools from governments the public sector lobby instead simply wants to take money away from non-government schools.”
“Less money for Catholic and other independent schools can only result in job losses for our teachers or massive reductions in their salaries and conditions.”
“This approach would result in the closure of many non-government schools particularly those low fee, low SES schools.”
The comments also fail to acknowledge that the private school sector in Australia is significantly larger than virtually any other country.
“Because governments since Whitlam in the 1970s recognized the need to support the non-government sector in Australia of course the proportion of costs will be greater.”
The other element that is never acknowledged is that in many, many other OECD countries, faith-based schools like our Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Jewish and Islamic schools are actually fully funded by government.
“The misrepresentation of the OECD data is aimed solely at targeting IEU teachers and school staff and it is disappointing that workers jobs are assaulted in such a fashion”, said Chris Watt.