Magpie Primary School principal Peter Clifton was one principal who met with Buninyong MP Geoff Howard to fight for the funding to be included in the May budget.

Mr Clifton told The Courier the funding equated to about $140,000 that was not included in his current school budget. 

“Geoff is our representative and I will be asking him to carry the message to Daniel Andrews and the importance of that funding to small schools like ours,” he said. 

“They have been in power six months. I don’t have the money in the budget right now. 

“I don’t know how they will deliver it and when.

“I will be presenting Geoff some facts and figures that he can take to the premier.” 

The government has previously said it is committed to Gonski reforms, but has not provided a specific commitment to funding

the final two years of the scheme. 

Mr Clifton said the funding directly impacted more than 50 per cent of students, with the funding previously being used to provide a variety of numeracy and literacy programs to students. 

“In 2011, we had nearly $100,000 and that money provided a variety of programs. One of them was a numeracy program called Quick Smart Maths,” he said. 

“We had that program for two years and I had to shut it down because I no longer had that money.” 

Mr Clifton said he hoped the discussion would have some impact, with principals across the state also conducting similar meetings.

“I will be presenting him (Mr Howard) with cold, hard facts about what would happen and asking him to carry the message to the premier. I want Geoff to be able to stand in front of Daniel and say this will affect half of the students in my school.”

Mr Howard said he was committed to ensuring that the funding flowed as it was intended. 

“The Andrews government investigation into Gonski funding has shown that the previous Liberal government left schools with a $50 million funding black hole over the 2014 and 2015 school years,” he said. 

“This is on top of the $1 billion they ripped out of our education system.

“The government’s investigations will continue, because the full impact of the Gonski funding gap is unclear. 

“The Labor government is fulfilling our commitment to transparency on Gonski. 

“When schools get their indicative budgets for 2016, they will include a specific line item detailing how much each school will receive under Gonski.”

matthew.dixon@fairfaxmedia.com.au