I REFER to the article, "Federal funding to drop; public schools to feel the pain" (The Courier May 24).
This article carries one person's opinion on a matter which is currently the subject of widespread consultation across the national education community the Gonski Review - without any inclusion of alternative views.
This Labor government isn't interested in cutting funding to schools.
Our record is the opposite. We've almost doubled schools funding compared with the Howard government.
We always said that more work needed to be done on the proposals put forward by the Gonski Review and that's what we're doing.
While this work continues, it is premature to start talking about future funding amounts.
As any new funding system for schools won't be introduced until 2014 (existing funding arrangements continue till then) the absence of funding within the 2012-13 Budget should not be read as an indication of our intentions on school funding reform.
Labor has a proud record on public education funding at all levels, unlike the irrational and savage approach of our opponents, as exemplified by the Baillieu government's $100 million-plus slashing of TAFE funding in Victoria.
Catherine King
Ballarat MHR