CHILDREN at North East schools in desperate need of upgrades are stuck in sub-standard facilities, with the Victorian government yet to make a single school funding pledge to the region.
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Several of the North East’s MPs have ramped up their push for the Labor government to match more than $20 million in funding promises made by the previous Coalition government before it was booted from office.
Education Minister James Merlino has refus- ed to answer direct questions from The Border Mail on the issue, instead accusing the Coalition of abandoning schools during its term and calling its promises a “last-ditch attempt” at re-election.
The Coalition promised the school $15 million for a long-awaited re-development during the election campaign; Benambra schools Wod- onga Middle Years College and Corryong College were also promised $4.3 million and $2.1 million respectively.
Labor made no specific commitments to North East schools, though does plan to invest $530 million in almost 100 schools statewide — details of this investment have not been revealed, however.
Benalla principal Barbara O’Brien felt the school was “caught in the change of governments”.
“With the growth of Melbourne, they (the government) say there are urgent needs there, but we have needs as well,” she said.
“We shouldn’t be disadvantaged because we’re in the country.”
The Border Mail asked several questions of Mr Merlino via email, including: why no school funding commitments were made to the North East; did the government agree they were worth funding; whether or not he would visit Benalla P-12 College; and how the Education Department determined its priority list for funding.
Mr Merlino did not answer the questions, instead stating: “During their time in office the previous government halved investment in our school infrastructure, leaving facilities to rot and schools bursting at the seams ... Unlike the previous government, we will be continuously working with schools, parents and communities — not against them.”
Follow-up questions were not responded to.
Mr Merlino has also not responded to an invi- tation from Euroa MP Steph Ryan to visit one of the schools in question, Benalla P-12 College.
His silence prompted her to raise the issue in Parliament this month, where she spoke of “classrooms riddled with mould” and how previous funds for new buildings had been redirected to maintenance.
“You’ve just got to look at the schools built in the last decade and then at (Benalla) to see what a different learning environment they are,” she said.
“They (Labor) came to the election promising to make Victoria the education state. I think they gave the expectation there will be a significant increase in capital funding for schools that are desperately needing it.”
Meanwhile, Northern Region MP Wendy Lovell — on behalf of Benambra MP Bill Tilley — spoke in the upper house of the lack of funding to the Wodonga and Corryong schools.
