It’s a Con-ski

It was only when the politicians began manipulating Gonski’s model that we began to have serious concerns.

So with no federal solution on hand both major Victorian parties sought to find an answer on how to provide and equitable and sustainable funding base for all Victorian schools.

Both parties understood that Victorian Catholic schools educate more than 210,000 students and that they sit shoulder to shoulder with government schools in the state’s most disadvantaged suburbs and towns. 

They knew that confidence and certainty was required to accommodate the extra 100,000 plus students expected to flood Catholic schools in the next 10 years.

I find it disturbing the teacher union can’t recognise that failing to meet those demands would cause many public schools to buckle under the strain of larger class sizes, while increased teacher workloads would inevitably lead to a decrease in results.

On the other hand the continued under-funding of Catholic schools and the inevitable migration of families to government schools would mean more teaching jobs for AEU members.

And so the AEU’s true motive reveals itself at last.

On matters as important as our children’s future we simply must work together. It’s why both major parties took the 25 per cent linkage funding policy to the polls at last year’s state election.

Both Premier Daniel Andrews and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy stood by those commitments at the end of February when the legislation was passed, without amendment.

They should be applauded for having the courage to do this in the interest of all Victorians with the knowledge of the inevitable self-interested industrial campaign that would follow.

The new Victorian approach to funding schools closes a long and dark chapter on sectarianism and politics of difference. It’s time AEU moved beyond the dark ages of industrial cage rattling.