By Michael O'Reilly
MELBOURNE — When Victorian education minister Don Hayward, a former executive with General Motors, outlined his horrendous program of education cuts on November 20, the reaction from teachers, parents and students was one of outrage and shock and presaged a another major challenge to the legitimacy of the Kennett government. But unfortunately, the campaign strategy pursued by the leadership of both the Victorian Secondary Teachers Association (VSTA) and the Federated Teachers Union of Victoria (FTUV) threatens to squander this potential.
The week following Hayward's announcement saw rolling half-day stoppages occur on a regional basis, with the western region rallied outside the education ministry in the city on November 23, the biggest. More than 5000 teachers, parents, students and supporters marched to the mall despite government threats to lockout teachers returning to work in the afternoon. But subsequent regional rallies have been smaller and while some of the schools that face closure have begun strong community campaigns the teacher unions have not organised central actions which could focus the widespread anger and boost morale.
Hayward claims that $86 million will be saved in 6 months. These amounts are totally inaccurate. The teacher unions have shown that the cuts total at least $230 million over the next year!
The government has paved the way for these cuts through its legislative program. The new Industrial Relations and Public Sector Management Bills have abolished Teachers rights. The Industrial Agreements (Staffing and Teaching Conditions) have been "terminated" in legislation!
The education cuts include closing 55 state schools, abolishing over 4000 teacher positions, sacking 3650 cleaning staff, reducing the nominal cleaning budget by half, reducing allowance positions, ceasing capital works, cancelling facilities upgrades and slashing the special needs staffing category.
The 4000 teaching positions represent 10% of the total number of teachers in the state system! 2175 of these "excess" teachers will be offered voluntary "separation" packages as an incentive to leave the system. An additional 500 teachers are expected to leave as a result of "natural attrition". If the government fails to achieve these targets, it intends to use its new powers under the Public Sector Management Act to sack teachers. The future of the remaining "excess" teachers remains unclear. They may remain employed, but receive pay only when deployed as an emergency teacher!
The government does not have a mandate to close schools or to break the industrial agreements with teacher unions. Prior to the election, Hayward gave public commitments that the Coalition ents and that no schools would be forcibly closed.
Vendetta
The school closures are economically (not educationally) driven, and smack of a political vendetta against those electorates that voted Labor. They also target those disadvantaged and in need of a free and quality state education system:
- Northlands Secondary College has Melbourne's largest Koori student population and offers an excellent program for Kooris and other disadvantaged students. Many of their students have been to other schools, but have only found success at Northlands.
- Flemington Secondary College has over 85% of its students coming from non-English -speaking backgrounds. Flemington offers special teaching programs to cater for these students.
- Ardoch-Windsor Secondary College has a large number of homeless students. These students are destined to finish their education on the streets. Ardoch-Windsor has a high level of support from the local community. They have organised corporate sponsorships and work experience programs to assist their students. They provide breakfast each morning for their students.
- Richmond Secondary College has a large number of students from disadvantaged and migrant backgrounds. If it closes, students living in Richmond will have nowhere to go to school.
The school closures and staffing cuts were expected prior to November 20, but neither the VSTA or the FTUV put into place strategies to respond to the attacks when they were announced. School communities were left to respond and fight by themselves. As a result, there is no common strategy being employed by school communities. The campaign is restricted to individual schools.
As a result, the well-attended local meetings organised by the schools fighting closure have lacked a sense of direction. This lack of leadership can only lead to failure.
Both the VSTA and the FTUV have 10 years of implementing the Labor governments cuts! Their campaigns have always ended in negotiating the cuts with the government. Both union leaderships have demonstrated through their inactivity that they have no idea how to fight. The campaign of decentralised and uncoordinated actions mirrors the Victorian Trades Hall Council- ACTU campaign against Kennett's new industrial relations laws.
The VTHC, under the leadership of John Halfpenny, has as its major demand for both of these campaigns, the wish to "just talk and negotiate with the government". Halfpenny has even been quoted as saying that "schools need to become more efficient"!!
The Kennett government's attack on public education has also been s of "We wanted to do it too!" from former Labor Premier John Cain, his education minister Ian Cathie, his senior adviser Mike Richards and former Kirner government treasurer Tony Sheehan. Sheehan told the November 17 Financial Review that he favoured education cuts of between $50-$80 million and a $100 million cut to public transport.
Even former Premier Joan Kirner (a former teacher and still the idol of many teacher union officials) said on Radio 3AW on November 24 that she could have "done more" to cut back the public sector in her last budget.
Private school funding increased
Neither the teacher unions, nor the VTHC, have addressed the issue of funding to private schools. While the cuts targeted state schools in disadvantaged areas, private schools will receive $199 million from the state government and $433 from the federal government this year, according to the Council for the Defence of Government Schools. Private school funding by the state has been increased by $34 million this years!
Why? Is it because the issue of funding to private schools is a "no-no" given the imminent federal election? Is the organisation of a real campaign to fight the cuts being avoided because of the imminent federal election? The officials' message to school communities seems to be the "NSW solution" ... go home and vote Labor next time!
A meeting of Western Region councillors from the VSTA and FTUV has initiated a joint campaign committee. This meeting will be open to all teacher unionists. This type of cooperation between the unions and open structure, they hope, will help to alleviate the lack of central leadership.
The unions are planning to support the THC endorsed stoppage on December 9. This is a negative step. Since the power and transport unions are taking stopwork on that day, it will be impossible for teachers to meet at a central place.
A mass meeting of teachers is essential for teacher morale and planning the campaign. But recent history has shown that the leaderships of both unions are reluctant to call mass meetings because mass meetings allow might teachers to force their leaderships into fighting instead of fruitlessly appealing for negotiations with an intransigent Kennett government.
The future of the fight is very uncertain. School communities will have to pressure both the teachers' unions and the government if the campaign against the cuts is to succeed.
[Michael O'Reilly is FTUV secondary councillor.]