Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby  

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE Friday, 22 May 2015

State Budget must address disability education funding crisis

Premier Will Hodgman was today urged to address the funding crisis for students living with disability in the state budget to be delivered next week.

Kristen Desmond, founder of the Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby, says that in the wake of the Federal Budget, which failed to deliver promised disability loadings, the situation for students living with disability is now at crisis point.

“Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby parent satisfaction surveys have shown that an estimated one in three Tasmanian students living with disability did not receive adequate support, with an estimated one in two students with disability not receiving any additional funding to help schools to provide appropriate support,” said Ms Desmond.

“The situation in our schools was now at crisis point,” she said.

“Premier Will Hodgman needs to fight hard for Tasmania’s interests and we’ve heard nothing from him about the Abbott Government’s broken promise of the full implementation of a disability loading for our schools, leaving them drastically under resourced.” she said.

“Mr Hodgman must use the state budget to prioritise all Gonski funding to where it is needed most and that means into schools to support students living with disability and for other students to overcome disadvantage,” she said.

Terry Polglase, AEU Tasmanian Branch, says the state budget is the time for the Premier to finally properly prioritise Gonski school funding for students most in need.

“A greater proportion of this year’s Gonski funding was allocated to upgrading the skills of the workforce than what was given to schools to support student learning,” said Mr Polglase.

“Will Hodgman must demonstrate a genuine commitment to Gonski by reversing last year’s damaging cuts and prioritising all Gonski school funding to where it’s needed most. That means prioritising funding for students living with disability and to address other measures of disadvantage and to remediate the under-resourcing predicament in schools,” said Mr Polglase.

These calls come on the same day that the Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby (TDERL) and the Australian Education Union launch their first-ever joint survey of teachers dealing with disability in schools.

“This survey is the first time teachers have had a chance to tell us in detail about the Tasmanian disability education support system,” said Ms Desmond.

“Sadly, we believe the teacher survey, in combination with the parent satisfaction survey launched on the 8th of May, will paint a stark picture of the desperate under resourcing of students with disability in our schools,” she said.

The joint AEU-TDERL survey was prompted, in part, by a five-month battle by Ms Desmond to obtain figures on the number of Tasmanian school students with disability. Education Minister

Jeremy Rockliff’s office refused to release the data and Ms Desmond has now been forced to lodge an FOI request with the Federal Government.

ENDS: For information contact Kristen Desmond 0448 037 064