Cat out of the bag on NSW education cuts

Vanguard October 2012 p. 12
Louisa L.

The NSW Teachers’ Federation has just been proved right in the worst possible way, with a $1.7 billion dollar education funding cut announced by the O'Farrell Government in mid-September.

Federation has said all year that the so-called Local Schools Local Decisions (LSLD) policy announced early this year is a funding cut disguised as principal autonomy.

In the same week as the latest cuts were announced, Ken Dixon, NSW General Manager of Finance and Administration until he retired recently, has confirmed the Federation's analysis in an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Anna Patty. “The Local Schools, Local Decisions policy is just a formula to pull funding from schools over time,” he said. “'It is the same way they have structured the TAFE budgets.”

According to Mr Dixon, the axing of 400 administration jobs from the department is just the beginning. “There were 1600 jobs factored into the business case”, Mr Dixon said in the article.

Government losing ground

When the government announced LSLD, they were flanked by representatives of all the principals' organisations. The state P&C loudly supported the government. Now all that's changed. With these latest attacks, the government has completely undermined the united front it had built around itself.

The Federation has spent this year building support, framing the dispute as “putting students first” against cutbacks. It's won back teachers, including principals, who'd been hoodwinked by the Government's slick propaganda. By the end of Term Two, a big rally filled the Sydney's Upper and Lower Town Halls and the square outside, while regional rallies were the biggest in decades. But still some believed the spin.

Federation's focus then shifted to building strong committees at each school. Unions have often found young workers difficult to engage, but now large numbers of young teachers are turning up at school union meetings – they know they will never get permanency if the attacks aren't defeated.

Cheerleaders isolated

The second task was mobilising parents. Across the state, Education Minister Piccoli and various top bureaucrats have copped heat from emboldened and informed parents. Public Service Association members in schools are gearing up for a stopwork on the first day of Term Four, its first in decades.

O'Farrell's isolated cheerleaders, like Director General Bruniges, wring their hands, talk of doing more with less and offer a couple of free counselling sessions in the face of looming unemployment for temporary teachers. TAFE Deputy Director General Pam Christie emails teachers about 'opportunities' and 'realignment', but the Government has cut the ground from under the feet of their defenders in schools.

In June, shock jock Ray Hadley said that firefighters, nurses and police are “sacred” but “teachers are fair game”. His statement reflects a worldwide ruling class assault on teacher unions. Teachers have now been proved right, and their ideological and organisational position is far stronger.

While some are impatient with Federation's cautious approach, others point out that refusing to run at every red flag the government waved has built the campaign. The ground is prepared, the united front is strengthened. It's time to move!