A Victorian Department of Education and Training estimator reveals just how significantly worse off Central Victorian schools will be under the Liberal Government’s new needs-based funding plan.

Most schools in the electorate will receive significantly less funding than they would have under the Gonski’s needs-based funding scheme, formalised with the Victorian Government in 2013 through the National Education Reform Agreement (NERA).

Kennington Primary School will receive $73,900 next year - $400,000 less than was arranged under the NERA, according to the Victorian Education Department analysis.

Bendigo Senior Secondary College will receive $265,800, estimated to be $1.2 million less than it would have under the original plan.

Lisa Chesters MP said the estimator confirmed her fears about the new funding plan.

“Under Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberals, the future for Bendigo’s schools looks grim,” she said.

“Under this plan, 85 per cent of public schools in Australia will fall short of the school resource standard in a decade.

“These cuts will hurt our local schools. It’ll mean fewer teachers, less one-on-one attention, and students left behind.

“The Turnbull Government said it wants to fund all schools “equally”.  However, not all schools are equal.

“Rural and regional areas, and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, are shown to have poorer educational outcomes.

“Some schools in our electorate have challenging student populations, for example those with many students from families on fixed low income, from refugee backgrounds or who are dealing with family violence. These schools need extra funding to address educational inequality.”

Ms Chesters said while Bendigo schools do terrific work, they need funding to ensure they can continue this work.

“I recently held a roundtable meeting with Labor’s Shadow Minister for Education Tanya Plibersek and local principals to find out what they were doing with their needs-based funding.

“The feedback was that the extra resources were producing meaningful results, like improving attendance and keeping young people engaged in education, or was being used for extra funding for sport, art and language programs.

“The Liberals’ cuts to schools mean programs like this are under threat.

"Bendigo and Central Victorian schools will be hit hard by these cuts and it means parents could be forced to pay more or school students will go without.

“It comes down to priorities. Victoria’s schools will receive $5.4 billion less over the next school so Malcolm Turnbull can give big business a $65 billion tax cut.”

Example of funding loss:

 
Funding loss figures are available for all schools here.