Funding gets low marks

– Paul Pickering
SCHOOLS in Ferntree Gully have been neglected by the State Government’s “inadequate” and “miserable” maintenance funding, says Liberal MP Nick Wakeling.
Mr Wakeling last week claimed that the recent announcement of $22,000 worth of funding towards maintenance at Fairhills Primary School was “a drop in the bucket” compared to the cash injection required to fix four Ferntree Gully schools.
The figures were lifted from a statewide audit conducted by the Education Department last year, suggesting that the Fairhills, Wattleview, Ferntree Gully North and Mountain Gate primary schools required $661,000 worth of funding to perform basic maintenance on roofs, heating systems and toilets.
Mr Wakeling said the documents – obtained under the Freedom of Information Act – contradicted the Government’s self-proclaimed schools revolution.
“By providing just over 3 per cent of the necessary funding, the Government will take slightly longer than 29 years to clear the current maintenance backlog,” he said.
“The Labor Party are patting themselves on the back saying they’ve delivered on schools but the best figure they can come up with is $22,000 for one school.”
Mr Wakeling referred to the State Government’s announcement that $16 million would be spent on repair and upgrade work at 724 schools across Victoria.
He claimed that the funding was little more than a token gesture given that the Government’s own audit identified a $268 million maintenance backlog in Victorian schools.
His sentiments echoed those of Shadow Minister for Education Philip Davis who has claimed that the audit figures were “seriously undercooked” and the actual deficit was closer to $1 billion.
In response, a Government spokesman said noted that the new funding merely complimented “the largest school capital works program in Victoria’s history”, and “was aimed at addressing the most urgent of the remaining maintenance issues identified by the detailed audit conducted in 2006”.