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After the BER, why are schools still broken?

Daniel Piotrowski

by Daniel Piotrowski

07 Nov 05:40am

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Filed under: Ber, Building Education Revolution, Education, Labor Party, Schools

76 comments

Gutters bursting at the seams after a 15 minute downpour. Leaking gas taps in the science labs. Classroom heaters failing in the winter, air conditioners not existing in the summer.

It's hard enough dealing with kids when you don't have a hole in the roof. Picture: Aaron Francis

My parents forked out their taxpayer dollars, plus $60 a year in textbook fees and an optional $100 on top of that so I could go to a public high school in Western Sydney. It was the same school my mum had attended when it was shiny(ish) and new in the late ’60s.

The problem was when I went there not only had nothing really changed, nothing had really been maintained.

It’s the same story in hundreds of public schools across the country: over the past 40 years they’ve been allowed to decay.

It’s one of the biggest problems with public education in Australia. And it’s one with the simplest of solutions: fix up the classrooms.

Last week the Herald-Sun revealed there are more than 100,000 items in need of repair in Victorian state schools. More than $300 million is needed to fix all the busted air-conditioners, sinking floors, crumbling and leaky roofs, and rotting windows.

Some schools simply can’t meet safety standards because they don’t have the cash to fix themselves up.

In New South Wales, the state government would need $400 million to upgrade stinky toilet blocks, fix desks and stop classrooms from flooding. In South Australia there’s a backlog of $100 million worth of things that needs to be fixed.

You’d think kids having roofs over their heads and not sinking into holes in the floor while they’re learning their times tables would be a top priority. 

What’s so mystifying is that all this that needs to be fixed when we just had the Federal Government’s Building the Education Revolution program. A $16.2 billion dollar scheme to modernise school infrastructure.

The BER scheme had the right idea. It funnelled money in the direction of building new school infrastructure (and in some cases refurbishing the old) for the first time in a long time. 

But while some schools were getting second school halls, not enough was being done to fix the buildings that already existed.

Why? Well, it’s much politically sexier to build a school hall than to fix a rotting window.

All the while elite private schools argue they’re doing it tough because they only have 3 sandstone arches while the rival school up the road has 4. 

It’s pretty obvious here that something’s gotta give.

Kids don’t need to have lamb rogan josh with jasmine rice at lunchtime when they could have a meat pie, a muesli bar and some OJ.

What they do need though is a roof over their head that doesn’t leak. An environment where they can learn.

Maybe what we really need an education revolution that’s a little more boring, but a little more necessary.

Most commented

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353"Gifting", "journey" and other words we hate
309Thomson didn't answer the question everyone is asking
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231Craig Thomson speaks. Meanwhile, in Australia...
230South Australia. It's the middle bottom bit.
224The most laughable, err, spoof since Einfeld

76 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Erick says:

      04:47am | 07/11/11

      Uh, no, the BER scheme didn’t have the right idea. It funnelled money into building useless and overpriced halls and shelters, rather than actually maintaining older buildings, or asking what schools actually needed.

      This created a temporary surge of employment for builders, but produced little of any lasting value. It was based on an attempt to stimulate the economy in a highly visible way (especially since most voting booths are in schools), and was exploited in taxpayer-funded advertising for the benefit of the Labor Party.

      In this sense, BER worked - but it was never about actually making anything useful for schools.

      Reply

    • Fiona says:

      07:24am | 07/11/11

      I know it’s not representative of all schools, but as well as the school hall, we have an upgraded, expanded library and computer lab and a couple of toilet blocks that desperately needed it have been refurbished. The school hall is useful in that any large function the school holds doesn’t have to go offsite to the local community hall any more, the OSHC centre can use it and it can be hired out. I’m sure we’re not the only school like this and no, we’re not private, or in a particularly high socio economic area.

    • Condor says:

      09:14am | 07/11/11

      Erick, that’s precisely what Daniel said.

      Any man and his dog knows that to win the game of politiics you have to be seen to be doing something flashy and new and have some good numbers behind.

      Unfortunately, it’s never about substance, only style.

      Maybe if the electorate was a bit more intelligent in their analysis and holding the government accountable we wouldn’t have this situation.

    • Vince says:

      09:42am | 07/11/11

      “This created a temporary surge of employment for builders, but produced little of any lasting value”

      Absolute BS.  What a parrot.  On what factual information do you base that absurd conclusion?  Nothing, as usual.  As a result of the BER our school has a fantastic new multi-purpose hall that is used all the time.  It is a gym/auditorium/assembly hall/function room.  The teachers love it.  The principal loves it.  The parents love it.  The kids love it.  It came in on budget.  It is a 100% success and will remain with the school for many, many decades.

      Nope, no “lasting value” there.  Move along people.  No value here.  Just Labour waste.  Blah blah blah blah…Polly wanta cracka?  Bawwwk.

    • MDG says:

      10:51am | 07/11/11

      Fiona has a good point.  If you read the independent reports into the BER, calling it a “school halls program” is pretty deceptive since actual school halls - which aren’t a bad thing - were outnumbered by other facilities like classrooms.

    • Bryn says:

      11:02am | 07/11/11

      @ Vince you probably need to look at the Economic Stimulus Plan and have a look a one of the reason why they funded to BER. It was to provide a surge in employment during an economic down turn. Its freely published on the Australian Governments own website.

      On budget, well lets just say that the QS that gave low estimate where not required and the QS that gave higher estimates where approved.

      In saying all of this do think some schools needed a new hall while other school need more resources in other areas. It was a good policy idea but poorly implemented. Of course there is waste its the federal government you can pretty much add 30-40% to a building and get away with it.

    • Chris L says:

      01:50pm | 07/11/11

      @Bryn - there were three investigations into the BER, the last being the Orgill report. All rated the BER as a success and none had any mention of the kind of waste figures radio shock jocks were going on about.

      While this government has had failures and shortcomings the BER is not one of them.

    • sha says:

      08:57pm | 07/11/11

      Uh no actually Erick. Our schools where I have 4 children received brand new eco classrooms, halls, libraries.In a marginal electorate thats a wonderful thing.But I do resent driving past The Kings School and seeing that BER government sign outside the school.Why do THEY need the handout? Theres no quick fix for the putrid toilets at my sons school.

    • Toady says:

      09:27pm | 07/11/11

      To Chris, this is taken directly from the final report:

      “For this report the Taskforce has completed a further 80 detailed value for money assessments.¹ Of those, 31 passed (39 per cent); 26 projects (32 per cent) achieved marginal value for money and 23 failed (29 per cent). Eighty –six per cent of the projects included in the assessment were selected as a result of complaints being lodged with the Taskforce and the result is not representative of the program as a whole.
      The detailed school project costs data in our BER CAM database has been updated and broadened to now include 3,700 P21 projects. The weighted average cost per square metre for hall, library and classroom projects overall is $2,618/m2. This is a variation of less than 1% from our First Report. The NSW Government continues to record the highest average cost per square meter for projects at $3,448/m2, an increase of 2.7 per cent. There has been a 10 per cent increase in cost per square metre, to $3,075, for the Victorian Government school projects.”

      A costly excercise to deliver buildings that were predominantly open spaces (halls).  It should have costed a lot less per metre.  Yes, this was a failure.

    • Labor is Toxic says:

      10:33pm | 07/11/11

      Just wait 10-years when the State Governments have to replace the computers and repaint the school halls.

    • Little Joe says:

      06:11am | 08/11/11

      @ Sha

      So you are saying that you saying that you are happy that your schools got infrastructure that didn’t include the necessary replacement of delapidated unkept toilets.

      Wow ..... I send my child to school to get an education , not a disease!!!

    • Catching up says:

      05:29am | 07/11/11

      How Is this the PM problem.  States are responsible for the upkeep of schools.

      The BER money was not for regular maintenance.

      It was to bring schools up to date.

      I suggest aiming the question at Mr. O’Farrell, but that is not as much fun.

      Reply

    • Macca says:

      05:45am | 07/11/11

      Haha, BO’F wasn’t even in office when the BER money was thrown at Schools who had no maintenance or development plans. It was a shocking waste of money that should have been spent on economic infrastructure such as roads, train lines and ports.

    • TimB says:

      05:51am | 07/11/11

      “The BER money was not for regular maintenance.

      It was to bring schools up to date.”

      I would have thought adding some mod-cons such as aircon, new toilets etc etc would be classified as ‘bringing schools up to date’.

      But hey, who needs a non-leaking roof in classrooms when you have a shiny new school hall that can host THREE kinds of indoor sports eh?

      “I suggest aiming the question at Mr. O’Farrell, but that is not as much fun.”

      Uh…why?

      O’Farrell only took power in March. Perhaps you should be talking to Kristina Keneally of the ALP?

    • marley says:

      06:08am | 07/11/11

      Actually, in NSW the question should be directed towards members of the previous ALP government, and their contractor mates who skimmed so much off the top.

    • fed up with incompetency says:

      07:32am | 07/11/11

      Catching up

      The BER was the greatest waste of taxpayer money in the history of Australia. every school get a second or third school hall, so the old school hall can be used as storage (in 2 cases I know)

      The BER was heavily wasted, heavily rorted, and won’t do anything for our productivity for the next 20 years. Does a new school hall improve how a school kids will do? NO, you are much better off spending that money on new computer, new scholl labs, or spend it on a nuclear or wind power plant

      As for your stupid statement at the end, The DCarr/Iemma/Reese/Keannelly incompetancy, left the state about $1 billion behind in school repairs, which part of the BER should have been allocated to, Maybe you could asked them why they left NSW so far behind

    • Alf says:

      08:12am | 07/11/11

      @Catching up. You don’t remember the Minister for Education who designed the BER and engineered the “Education Revolution”. It was the same ranga who stood next to Krudd waving a laptop in the air proclaiming “...a computer for every school student in years 9-12”.

    • Ben C says:

      09:11am | 07/11/11

      Catching up has a lot of catching up to do…

    • Liberal Parrot says:

      09:47am | 07/11/11

      Squaawk. Labour waste.  Labour waste.  Squaawk.  Tweet tweet.  Spend like drunk sailors.  Squaak.  Tweet tweet.  Krudd.  Squaak.  Bob’s Bitch.  Squaawk.  Tweet tweet.

      So sick of hearing you idiots parrotting the same crap over and over and over and over and over.  Go away.

    • Alf says:

      06:11pm | 07/11/11

      @Liberal Parrot. You obviously put a lot of thought and research into your response. The Labor primary vote is at risk when they count on people like you to fill in a ballot paper.

    • Labor is Toxic says:

      07:41am | 08/11/11

      @ Labor Parrot

      The old saying ..... if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... now comes to mind!!!

      By the way, as I predicted Labor overestimated revenues ..... AGAIN!!! Higher Deficits!!! More Debt!!!

      Cover your ears and scream “I’m not listening!!! I’m not listening!!!”

    • Gary Cox says:

      05:45am | 07/11/11

      The problem with the BER (well actually there were lots of problems not least of all Julia Gillard was in charge of it) was that schools couldn’t choose how the money was spent. The were told they must have a new hall when most probably would have been just as happy to refurbish the old one and fix the toilets for half the price.

      Reply

    • Against the Man says:

      05:55am | 07/11/11

      The BER was a failure because the ALP just wanted to spend and show off and not to discuss with schools to address specific needs. That would require hard work and we know the ALP (champions of policy on the run) don’t have time for that.

      Reply

    • Carz says:

      06:28am | 07/11/11

      The BER blowout was the fault of the states, not the federal government. In NSW the government restricted who could tender for projects and chose the winning companies. Schools had very little say in the design of the facilities they received. The NSW government also approved huge bonuses for contractors for doing the job they had been hired to do (ie, produce a building by a certain date). The BER was an ambitious program that should have seen schools receive facilities they could never have afforded to build themselves. Instead it saw the state governments line their own pockets.

      Reply

    • marley says:

      07:27am | 07/11/11

      Well, I agree the states have to take some of the responsibility for the problems with BER - but not all of it.  The federal government handed over millions of taxpayer dollars - it had a responsibility to ensure that our money was spent wisely and not wasted.

    • Nilbog says:

      08:20am | 07/11/11

      It’s very easy to spend other people’s money…

    • NESLIHAN KUROSAWA says:

      07:16am | 07/11/11

      Hi Daniel,

      We definitely do not need any big words like Building Education Revolution, just to make a real difference to our Public School Buildings in Sydney as well as other parts of Australia. Just to visit some of the local schools around Sydney is most probably enough to put you off from sending your child to a Government funded school, unfortunately!!

      From the smelly old carpeting, to the lack of hygiene in toilets & run down libraries is all a very sad picture indeed.  I am talking about my own daughter attending so called good schools!!  Some of the conditions in schools belong in Third Word Countries, most unfortunately!!  I would think that if we have popular house renovation shows, why do not we have a live action show for our public schools.  It is nothing more than a little bit of cement & elbow grease could not fix, if you ask for my personal opinion.  Best regards to your editors.

      Reply

    • PTom says:

      10:23am | 07/11/11

      One of the things that could raise money is corporate sponsor, not to a individual school but a district.

      I remember a case of a Sydney inner west school tried to put a sign up near the fence for a massive corporate sponsor the school was told to hand back the cash and take down the sign. The school got the out door coverings but the government ended up paying for it.

    • Dash says:

      07:32am | 07/11/11

      In NSW, the BER consisted of builders hand picked by the ALP with their noses in the taxpayer trough! Ha - some revolution.

      About as useful as the ALPs promises to provide a coastguard, to build 260 new childcare centres, to provide root and branch tax reform, to be fiscally conservative, to provide more affordable housing, cheaper fuel, cheaper groceries, an East Timor Solution, green loans, cash for clunckers, citizen’s assembly and a balanced budget!

      The BER represents yet another failure in an ever increasing line of ALP screw-ups and lies.

      Who could possibly be left voting for these incompetent fools?

      Reply

    • Chalkie says:

      07:35am | 07/11/11

      The BER money should have been given to the heads of the school to improave the infrastructure already there - but Rudd had to big note himself.  Let’s hope he doesn’t have the opportunity to do it again.

      Reply

    • PTom says:

      10:13am | 07/11/11

      Until you have Local Education Boards having a single person in charge of funding will not improve anything.

      In the past schools in NSW where caught out keeping maintenance budgets for new items like computers.

    • Jt says:

      07:59am | 07/11/11

      I thought the point of the ber was to stimulate the economy asap. As such a certain amount of waste is inevitable. Yes it could have been better planned, but planning takes time, and there would be no point of stimulating if it was delivered late.
      Most people appear to be focusing solely and way too much on the examples of waste, ignoring the multiple areas it was useful. The only comment above from someone who appears to work in a school suggests that they actually benefited.

      Reply

    • VVS says:

      08:29am | 07/11/11

      I work in insolvency and can list many builders whose businesses went under during the GFC.

      The problem with the BER (which was good in theory) was that in practice the builders who obtained the tenders for the work were the same connected ones with their noses in the trough who get most of the government tenders.

      Those building companies were always going to survive the GFC, it was the smaller builders and contractors who didn’t get the work (who should have) which went into liquidation/bankruptcy as a result of the misdirection of stimulus funds.

      Therefore the builders most exposed to the GFC weren’t helped at all, many lost their businesses, their licences and their homes.

      These are good builders mind you, with years of experience, and no complaints ever made in relation to the quality of their work, whose work almost dried up overnight.

    • Joey Joe Joe says:

      03:14pm | 07/11/11

      @ VVS - that was probably the best comment on this topic.

      Sums up perfectly what was wrong with the BER and coming from someone with somewhat of an inside knowledge of the industry.
      Well done.

    • Adam Diver says:

      08:09am | 07/11/11

      “when they could have a meat pie, a muesli bar and some OJ.”

      Wow what a horrible lunch for your children. Whilst treats occasionally are not an issue, I would recommend no parent to feed their kids that crap regularly.

      Whilst the BER was a monumental waste, why can’t schools fundraise these days, why must everything be the job of the state. How does the author think the private schools get “3 sandstone archers”, its not funded by the state.

      Reply

    • marley says:

      08:39am | 07/11/11

      @Adam - I wouldn’t have an issue with schools fund-raising for “frills” but it does seem to me that routine maintenance and plumbing repairs ought to be covered by the state.  After all, it’s much cheaper for the owners to keep property in a good state of repair than to rebuild it when it gets to the point of collapse.

    • Adam Diver says:

      10:59am | 07/11/11

      @ Marley, of course each situation should be judged on its merits, but the fact that only the state is looked upon to fix nagging issues is a blight on our society IMO. The state whilst inefficient and bloated are not really sitting on lots of cash, so unless people want more taxes, or higher school fees, I think more community responsibility is on the cards.

      Having said that, the state government is complete s**t and should not be absolved from its responsibilities, perhaps cutting the BS green programs and repairing the schools could be a start.

    • Vince says:

      01:26pm | 07/11/11

      “Whilst the BER was a monumental waste, ...”

      Such utter and complete rubbish absent of any factual basis or considered thought.  You, sir, are parroting nonsense. 

      Look, have an opinion.  Have an opinion that is different to mine.  Have an opinion that rejects the BER strategy even.  But base it, for god’s sake, on some element of the truth.

    • Adam Diver says:

      02:56pm | 07/11/11

      @ Vince, I won’t go into details of the waste, but 16 billion on non-essential school items, some of which after the economic period needed, is a waste in my eyes.

      They were built for economic circumstances not practical ones, the reason for being is proof that it was waste. Unless Labor had always planned to spend 16 billion on school infrastructure in thier first term?

    • Labor is Toxic says:

      10:31pm | 07/11/11

      Vince ..... it was a monumental waste.

      $42B saved 100,000 jobs.

      With $42B you could have built those 100,000 people a $400,000 house and given it to them for free and saved $2B.

      The truth is scary isn’t it!!!

    • Tator says:

      08:33am | 07/11/11

      To be honest, I wouldn’t be just criticising the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program (the school halls build) for this lack of maintenance, but the National School Pride program part of the BER which was aimed at the neglected repairs of the public school system.  With $1.28 billion spent on this repair program it shows the scope of the wastage within the BER Primary Schools for the 21st Century where in NSW alone, over $500 million was gouged out of the taxpayer by managment companies in excessive fees alone.  Just imagine what could have been done with this funding if it was used on increasing the National School Pride funding by nearly 40%.

      Reply

    • AdamC says:

      08:37am | 07/11/11

      What surprises me is how low Daniel’s numbers are. $300million to fix up Victoria’s schools, as an example, is pitifully low. Why not simply impose a modest co-payment on parents of children in state schools to fund building works? Doing that, you could fix the problem with raising overall government spending.

      Reply

    • Joel B1 says:

      08:40am | 07/11/11

      The BER was simply money to the Unions to say thanks for the millions of dollars of undeclared political advertising in the form of anti-workchoice ads.

      The ALP is rotten to the core.

      Reply

    • Anna C says:

      09:05am | 07/11/11

      Instead of wasting $16 bllion on the BER scheme, the government should have allocated money to each school to spend on either maintaining their existing buildings or buildings new infrastructure. Schools should have been encouraged to employ their local builders to do the work instead of the shonks that the NSW Department of Education hired. This would have stimulated the economy at a local level. Instead I heard that millions of dollars allocated to NSW schools was given to Victorian building firms to build below standard pre-fab buildings while local tradies missed out.

      Reply

    • SimonFromLakemba says:

      02:01pm | 07/11/11

      Correct. Great initiative, typical Labor handling of it.

      I was in building at the time and it was a gravy train for halls and building that wernt needed.

      They should have given the schools a certain amount to be budgeted and costed for whatever they needed, whether it was a hall or air con etc etc

    • Bomb78 says:

      09:08am | 07/11/11

      If the question is what is wrong with public education, the answer is no doubt where is the money going?
      My first born will be starting school in January. The public school we have to send him to (no choice in the matter) is ‘directing’ where we buy books and stationery from - whilst getting a kickback from the supplier that they acknowledge but don’t quantify - and then they stick their hand out for what amounts to a capital contribution to the school. They can’t tell me what the supplier kickback or the capital contribution is spent on, other than to say it’s spent on ‘school projects and vital supplies’. Love that free public education!
      This same school gets almost 25% more funding per student as the little Catholic primary school a couple of kilometres away. They can tell me where every cent goes. These two schools have the same amount of students, yet the public school has 3 deputy principals, the Catholic school one; the public school appears to have about 6 admin staff in the office, the Catholic school has 2.
      The difference is that the Catholic school has to be accountable for every single cent - much like a private business. And the community that supports it – the Archdiocese, the parish clergy, the parishioners and parents – all have a clear idea of the performance they expect from the school in terms of educational and financial outcomes.
      To top of my personal experience: I even had the principal of the public school tell me that before school care really doesn’t cost me anything, because ‘you’ll get most of it back in a rebate from the government’. At that point he lost me, I told him he simply didn’t get it and walked out.
      If this public school is indicative of the across Queensland and Australia, I cringe to think what values our children are learning at these institutions.

      Reply

    • Fiona says:

      08:33pm | 07/11/11

      You can always go to an outside book supplier. I don’t know you live in Qld, but Brodie’s bookshops supply to Brisbane and you can lay by there. You can really get books (or most of them anywhere). You are not obliged to pay for the education contribution if it bothers you enough. As for the no choice of schools, again don’t know where you live, but you can send your child outside the area, but there will be a wait list. Why not send your child to the catholic school?

    • Little Joe says:

      06:21am | 08/11/11

      As part of the “value for money” Catholic Education my son receives is all the textbooks. These are owned by the school and included in the fees. We only pay for them if the books are lost or destroyed.

      I know how you feel about School administration. Because of Government Policy schools now employ more staff who do not teach. My sister found my old class photo when I was in Grade 1 ....... 52 students in the class. The school had one headmaster, one support staff and a Part Time PE Teacher. How things have changed.

    • Jack says:

      09:34am | 07/11/11

      I spent 20+ years teaching and the only newly painted classrooms I ever worked in I painted myself. The school used to get me into a different room each year so it could get another room painted!
      Only the most basic repairs were ever done because of underfunding which resulted in more expensive rectification down the track. How about the refusal to prevent possums getting into one wing staining the ceilings until one ceiling actually collapsed?
      There are more votes in doing shiny PR things than in giving kids in public schools a reasonable workplace.

      Reply

    • Ian1 says:

      09:34am | 07/11/11

      The BER was the greatest heist of taxpayer funds ever implemented in this country’s history.
      Gillard can languish on her record of money for the unions, money for the contractors and again it’s zip all for the students. 
      Can Labor do anything properly without the dodgy deals and ‘believe me’ sly grins?

      Reply

    • Deena says:

      09:57am | 07/11/11

      Living in western sydney, there are more than a dozen schools that requested BER funds to fix existing structural issues and expansion of library, computer/interent servcies. Instead their request were ignored and they were given a new or expanded school halls or new extensions to the school. Now where is the logic in all this? You have a new school hall but your class rooms are leaking on a rainy day and the students don’t have enough computers to learn on. Clearly the ALP wanted to spend money, turn this into a PR exercise and to grease their friends in the construction business all at once. If it isn’t so please tell me why? This whole mess is a classic example of why Miss Gillard and Labor are not fit to govern us at all.

      Reply

    • Thank you very much says:

      10:48am | 07/11/11

      There are Liberal Party State Governments in New south wales and Victoria.

      Reply

    • Aitch B says:

      12:16pm | 07/11/11

      @Thank you very much

      True, but there were ALP State Governments in NSW and Victoria during the BER and both of those states had ALP governments long before that :  NSW from 1995, Victoria from 2001.

      Your point is?

    • GB says:

      12:21pm | 07/11/11

      Hmmm…....majority of BER work was undertaken throughout 2009. Victoria Coalition Govt. elected December 2010 after 11 years of ALP Govt. NSW Coaltion Govt. elected March 2011 after 16 years of ALP Govt. I want bother pointing out the flaw in your theory as it’s there for all to see.

    • John Davidson says:

      10:49am | 07/11/11

      In case we have forgotten the prime aim of the BER was to protect Australia from the effects of the GFC with the capital expenditure on schools a bonus.  The Coalition wanted to use tax cuts for the rich to stimulate the economy and has gone out of its way to blow out any problem found with the BER.

      Because of its GFC crisis focus the money was, quite logically, spent on “ready to go” capital projects rather than repairs.

      Reply

    • PTom says:

      11:02am | 07/11/11

      All these people bitching and moaning about the BER not one new idea amongst them, were the F’ was you beloved Liberal programs to improve Public Schools in the last 20 years? I sure a Flag pole in every school was needed.

      In the last 20 years we had Government reforms which involve cutting teachers, support staff numbers, closing school, selling land, outsource cleaning and centralize budget control.
      What we need is some real reforms like
      - Local Education boards (from Pre-school to High School)
      - Corporate sponsor in building or sports teams.
      - Split funding into infrastructure (State) and teaching (Federal).
      - Changes to Private school funding No State funding only Federal funding based on students needs.
      - In NSW cut free travel from any school to the nearest public school.

      Also biggest reform is to stop hiring US based consulting teams ask the people here on what needs to be done.

      Reply

    • Dean says:

      12:54pm | 07/11/11

      @ PTom,
      how quickly people forget, yes there was the flag poles and don’t forget the posters of Simpson and his donkey with “Australian values” on them (what ever the f#%$ they are). The LNP have the gall to call the BER a waste of money. How does these LNP reforms improve the education of children? At lest with the BER we have something to show for it.

    • Tator says:

      12:55pm | 07/11/11

      PTom,
      most of those reforms came from the predominantly ALP State governments who in NSW (16 years) SA (10 years), QLD (13 years) and Victoria (11 years) had been in power for long periods of time.  Operational issues such as teacher and support staff numbers, cleaning contracts, budget controls and school closures and land sales are all state based issues and the Feds cannot touch them.

    • PTom says:

      02:52pm | 07/11/11

      @Tator
      Every time a change of Government occurs the first thing they do is reform Education by cuts yes both sides , but at least Federal ALP is trying to improve education with the BER, Naplan and NBN.

      What makes you think Federal can not touch them?
      As section 51. XXIIIA, Section 81 and Section 96 allows the Commonwealth to get invloved it could be argued that they could take over education 100%

    • Tator says:

      04:53pm | 07/11/11

      PTom,
      section 51 (xxiiiA.) The provision of maternity allowances, widows’ pensions, child endowment, unemployment, pharmaceutical, sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services (but not so as to authorise any form of civil conscription), benefits to students and family allowances:
      is about financial support for living costs for students such as Austudy.

      Section 81. All revenues or moneys raised or received by the Executive Government of the Commonwealth shall form one Consolidated Revenue Fund, to be appropriated for the purposes of the Commonwealth in the manner and subject to the charges and liabilities imposed by this Constitution. 

      Sure that had got nothing about the control of education resources as it is all about all Commonwealth revenue being treated as one source of funding.

      Section 96. During a period of ten years after the establishment of the Commonwealth and thereafter until the Parliament otherwise provides, the Parliament may grant financial assistance to any State on such terms and conditions as the Parliament thinks fit.
      Basically talks about Commonwealth grants to the States, either tied or untied, basically all they can do is direct funding to specific areas but it is still up to the States to manage it.

      What you have forgotten PTom, is that when the Constitution was written, it was written in a way that preserved States rights and minimised the power of the Commonwealth government and that you will find that the States will fight any hostile takeover of any part of their bailiwick by the Federal Government in the High Court and considering that the Coalition have government in three states and there is no way that they will refer anything to the Commonwealth whilst it is being run by the current crop of ALP politicians.
      Basically the only way the Feds can get their hands on education is if the states utilise section (xxxvii.) “Matters referred to the Parliament of the Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any State or States, but so that the law shall extend only to States by whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterwards adopt the law:”
      which is how the state based IR for Victoria ended up in the Federal jurisdiction after Kennett had the Victorian Parliament refer their IR responsibilities to the Federal Government.  For the other obvious example of the Feds taking over State responsibility, we had Workchoices which actually used Section 51 part XX “(xxxvii.) Matters referred to the Parliament of the Commonwealth by the Parliament or Parliaments of any State or States, but so that the law shall extend only to States by whose Parliaments the matter is referred, or which afterwards adopt the law:”  to override the State laws and this was upheld in the High Court.

      BTW the only reason education funding was cut in the last State Coalition governments in Victoria and SA was because both states were left broke by the previous ALP Governments and there were cuts across the whole of government so education wasn’t the only ones to suffer

    • Tator says:

      10:13pm | 07/11/11

      Bugga, missed the cut and past, should be Section 51 part xx Foreign corporations, and trading or financial corporations formed within the limits of the Commonwealth:

    • dobbo says:

      11:08am | 07/11/11

      Hmmm…guess would have to blame penny pinching anti intellectual Libs under Howard for a lot of the problems.

      Another thing…have heard some very positive stories about schools which have fantastic new amenities as a result of BER. Not in the media though - only from teachers themselves. When are we going to get the whole picture?

      Reply

    • Ali K says:

      11:22am | 07/11/11

      I think this was a brillant piece of work by the ALP. I was a policy that strikes at the heart of working families. Governments are about symbolism and grand gestures, this is what the government is about and the ALP are brillant at it.

      Reply

    • St. Michael says:

      12:06pm | 07/11/11

      And people still try and argue that public schooling shouldn’t in fact just be private across the board?

      Reply

    • Glen says:

      12:20pm | 07/11/11

      There was a lot wrong with the BER, in some states a lot more than in others. But let’s not forget that for most schools then BER buildings were the only new buildings they had seen in 40 years. That single fact eclipses all of the criticism of the programme.

      The real demon here is the “efficiency dividend’ beloved of treasuries. If you chose 3% year after year from a budget which is 90% wages and maintenance then obviously buildings aren’t maintained.

      Reply

    • John says:

      12:31pm | 07/11/11

      I don’t see the correlation between what a school serves at lunch (funded by boarding fees…) and another school’s leaking gutters…?

      Reply

    • julian thomas says:

      02:00pm | 07/11/11

      why because private schools getting massive subsides from gov. totally unnecessary, then they bank it, get the interest and report thatt money as there yearly profit! private should mean private!

      Reply

    • julian thomas says:

      02:03pm | 07/11/11

      well BOF is in power now, so we can question him on anything, funny that the libs apologists have claimed credit for removal of station fees mascot & green, study harder boys & girls, KK did that

      Reply

    • Matt says:

      03:53pm | 07/11/11

      Perhaps the schools are still broken because fixing them wasn’t the purpose of the BER?  You’ve probably heard the same in many comments I haven’t read - the BER was about stimulating the economy, and it worked.  Remember, Australians got through the GFC virtually unscathed? If the building industry collapsed - and it was close - then also the scaffolding, cladding, carpentry, plumbing, designing, roofing and many other associated industries would also have collapsed…  The company I worked for at the time employed about 1000 directly and about another 6000 subcontractors that would have been out of a job if not for the BER.  That was just one company. 

      Perhaps if you’re going to dump on something Daniel, you should first find out it’s purpose.

      Reply

    • Against the Man says:

      05:02pm | 07/11/11

      Matt I believe there are heaps of infrastructure and building projects that this country needs. I believe that the government could have also stimulated the economy by investing in those projects. For the money we get something of use and value.

      Fixing wasn’t the purpose might be true. But efficient spending to get the most for the taxpayer’s buck also wasn’t the purpose.

    • Daniel Piotrowski

      Daniel Piotrowski says:

      08:50pm | 07/11/11

      Hey Matt,

      Fair call on the stimulus role. More than anything I was dumping on the fact that our public schools suffer so much neglect.

      What I really would’ve liked to see, and probably should’ve mentioned, is some sustained maintenance investment in schools beyond the BER scheme.

    • sha says:

      09:12pm | 07/11/11

      True. Sustained maintenance is extremely important.The stimulus was one off and valuable but the ball needs to keep rolling.P&C’s are tired of fundraising for essential items.Go to the P &C’s for the true story on schools funding and maintenance.Its an awful lot of cakes…and I know….I make some of them.

      Reply

    • Buy oem says:

      09:26am | 08/11/11

      ELZuq0 I do`t see a feedback or the other coordinates from the blog administration!....

      Reply
 
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