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More school building funds announced

Posted on September 1, 2009, 8:08am and updated on September 2, 2009 at 2:25 pm

South East schools have received another multi-million dollar funding windfall with the third and final round of the “Primary Schools for the 21st Century” grants package announced by the Federal Government as part of its economic stimulus plan.

McDonald Park Primary School will receive $5m to refurbish and build classrooms and upgrade its multi-purpose hall, while Melaleuca Park K-7 School will receive $1.6m for hall and classroom renovation work.

Kingston Community School and Millicent’s St Anthony’s School will receive $2m each, while Moorak and Rendelsham primary schools, Penola’s Mary MacKillop Memorial School and Lucindale Area School will receive $850,000 each for building work.

Beachport Primary School and Frances Primary School will also receive $250,000 each for new libraries and classrooms.

Labor Senator Dana Wortley said 37 primary schools in the Barker electorate would share $39.45m for major new infrastructure projects under the new funding round as the government continued the largest school modernisation program in Australia’s history.

“This investment in our local primary schools is overdue and will go a long way to supporting local jobs during the global recession,” she said.

“Teachers and students in our local schools should be teaching and learning in 21st century facilities.

“It’s been great to see local principals, school communities and the building industry working with the State and Federal governments to deliver these important projects.”

Senator Wortley said third round projects would begin as soon as possible.

New Melaleuca Park K-7 School principal Brian Duke said the package had been welcome, with early grant rounds funding major projects previously identified by schools and later contributions being allocated to facilities in need of more general upgrade.

“It is a great opportunity and everybody is excited to be getting something,” he said.

“In the short term there has been a bit of work getting organised, but in the long term it will be great.”

He said school leaders were still to meet with contractors following the announcement to identify how to use the Melaleuca allocation, but it was hoped the money would fund classroom refurbishment, a new gymnasium floor and other work.

Mr Duke said the school was also eligible for $150,000 in School Pride money, which he hoped would fund a playground upgrade and conversion of the disused canteen into a multi-use wet area for art and other projects.

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Comments

2 Responses to “More school building funds announced”

  1. Katrina on September 2nd, 2009 1:58 pm 1

    I am curious to know why a private school in a town that has a government primary school and a government secondary school is eligible for this funding? $850,000 for Mary McKillop Primary school is a lot of money for what is a very small school (this year I think the Yr 7 class has 5 children in it) As far as I can tell all the other schools are government schools and as this is tax payer money I believe it should be spent in government schools. If it was the only school available in Penola then I would not have a problem with money being allocated but private schools should have to stand on their own two feet and not be constantly bailed out by the government. I am sure that both the government primary and secondary school in Penola would have been glad to have recieved such a large amount of funding and I really feel this is not the right way for government money to be spent!! Why was this money not spent on the government run schools?

  2. Adam Naiova on September 2nd, 2009 2:56 pm 2

    Katrina, in response to your comment, since the 1960’s, non-government schools have received Commonwealth funding.

    Since the late 1960’s, this has been an accepted on a bi-partisan basis, with both Liberal and Labor governments supporting such funding, albeit with often quite different funding formulas and priorities.

    If I remember correctly, currently government schools receive approximately $12 000 pa per student and non-government schools receive approx. $4 000 per student (these figures are when Commonwealth and State government funding is combined).

    I may have the actual dollar amounts quite wrong, but I am fairly certain that non-government schools get around 30 – 35% of what government schools get on a per student basis.

    I am a strong supporter of public education and I believe in a robust public school system.

    However, I support the current level of government funding for private schools.

    All parents, whether their children are in public or private schools, are equally liable to pay taxes and it would be in my opinion, be unfair to not provide at least some level of assistance to parents who are willing to financially contribute to their children’s education.

    Of course not all parents have the resources to pay private school fees, however it must be taken into account that many ‘ordinary people’, send their children to private schools.

    Whilst I am not Catholic, nor to I have any in-depth familiarity with the Catholic school system, I am aware that these schools are usually run on a low-fee basis, with generous fee concessions for School Card (low-income) holders and other disadvantaged groups.

    Therefore it cannot be argued that they cater to ‘rich kids’.

    Also, remember that the government spends $4 000 on private students, compared to $12 000 on public students.

    Therefore every student whose parents choose a private school saves the taxpayer $8 000.

    Without government funding, it is likely that low-fee private schools would have to either increase their fees or reduce their education quality; either would result in many lower-middle and middle-income families changing to public education.

    This would result not in a saving of public money, but an increase of $8 000 per student to the taxpayer and increased burden on our already struggling public schools.