Small-minded Budget Robs Future

The Budget has evoked a positive response from our local business community.
However, the Coalition government is not considering the long-term future for businesses and for
Australian communities. Sadly lacking is the support for education so that all our children, rich and
poor, will succeed at school and be prepared for future employment.
Jobs that poorly-educated people might find 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 those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This
will impact on our 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 entirely 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.
Disadvantaged students are performing well below their high Socio-economic status (SES) peers.
NSW Year 9 students from Low SES backgrounds are over 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 allowing
disadvantaged children to continue without assistance will mean negative economic and social
results for our future society: poorer health outcomes, higher unemployment, mental health
problems, domestic violence and crime.
This budget robs the future for this generation of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and
Australia will be less than it could be.
Jesse Rowan, Malua Bay
Published in the Bay Post May 20, 2015:
http://www.batemansbaypost.com.au/story/3091233/letters-to-the-editor/