Premier denies Victoria is failing to meet its Gonski funding requirements for state schools
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has denied her government has withdrawn from its funding commitment to state schools.
It follows reports published in Nine newspapers, which claim the state government ripped out $2.4 billion from school budgets by delaying its commitment to the Gonski education reforms by three years.
The Age reports the savings were signed off by the premier and buried in last year's state budget.
Ms Allan said the reports were incorrect and her government had increased its funding towards school capital works and buildings by $17 billion.
"Fifty per cent of all new schools that open up around Australia are found here in Victoria," she said.
As part of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), the federal government reached an agreement with the state government to increase its funding share from 20 to 25 per cent.
"In return, Victoria must reach and maintain at least 75 per cent of the SRS for its public schools, and reduce indirect expenditure currently counted towards its share from 4 per cent to zero by 2034," Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said.
Under the SRS, each state set the year it would reach the 75 per cent commitment.
Victoria and Western Australia were yet to sign the bilateral agreement setting out the time frame with their federal counterparts.
However, Mr Clare said he spoke with Victoria's Education Minister Ben Carroll last week about progressing it.
Victoria's Shadow Education Minister Jess Wilson likened the reports to cuts to the education sector.
"These secret cuts have exposed Labor's utter hypocrisy on public school funding and their failure to provide Victorian students with the education they need and deserve," she said.
"Whilst spending years demanding the Commonwealth lift their proportion of government school funding beyond agreed levels, the Allan Labor government was secretly cutting billions from public schools."
The Australian Education Union's Victorian Branch also accused the state government of failing to deliver on its funding commitment.
"The state Labor government likes to call Victoria the 'education state', but with billions of dollars of missing funding, every other state and territory are deserving of that mantle instead of Victoria," said branch president Justin Mullaly.
"Without full funding delivered in a fair and timely way, it will be much harder for teachers, education support staff, and principals to properly and effectively meet the learning and wellbeing needs of students."
The Victorian Greens said it was a disgrace that Labor had prioritised corporate interests over properly funding state education.
"The fact that Labor can find hundreds of millions for a luxury playground for F1 sponsors, but won't properly fund our schools, says it all," said the party's state leader Ellen Sandell.
"Labor seem to care more about champagne for corporates than schoolbooks for kids."
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