Small-minded Budget ignores the future
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Last Tuesday’s Budget has evoked a positive response from the local business community.
However, the Budget does not consider the long-term future for businesses and for Australian communities.
Sadly lacking is the support for education so that all children, rich and poor, will succeed at school and be prepared for future employment.
Jobs that poorly educated people once found are disappearing with advances in technology.
Employers need better-educated, flexible workers with communication and problem-solving abilities, familiarity with rapidly changing technology, as well as literacy and numeracy skills.
Australian and overseas research shows that inequity in education increases the gap between the performance of children from well-off families and children from disadvantaged backgrounds, which will affect future economic performance.
The Abbott government will only deliver one-third of the promised Gonski funding over the next two years, and plans to abandon Gonski after 2017.
Schools were counting on increased funds to extend literacy and numeracy programs to support children who need extra assistance.
Instead, they will be forced to cut these programs or struggle with parent fund-raising (poorer areas affected even more!) or divert funding from other areas.
NSW year 9 students from low socio-economic status backgrounds are more than four years behind in reading, writing and numeracy.
Indigenous and remote area students are almost six years behind.
Australia cannot afford to cut Gonski funding.
Ignoring under-resourced schools and not helping disadvantaged children will result in poorer health, higher unemployment, mental health problems, domestic violence and crime in the future.
This budget robs the future for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and Australia will be less than it could be.
Jesse Rowan, Malua Bay