“Many of our schools are showing their age,” said Council Secretary Cecilia Shlegel. “We welcome commitments by each of the major parties to providing substantial new funding for public school infrastructure.”

“Some of our schools have wonderful buildings and facilities, but others lag behind. All students deserve the same high standard. There is a public school maintenance program, but it is too slow to adequately address this,” she said.

“Unfortunately, in the past, infrastructure money has been promised but it has not been clear where, or if, the money has been spent. We will be looking for much more transparency on where these promised funds are spent by the party elected.”

“It is also not clear how much of this infrastructure funding now promised by the Labor and Liberal parties is new, additional, money and how much is existing funding, already committed to the school maintenance program.”

“We also call on ACT election candidates to commit to further investment in IT infrastructure and equipment in schools. Appropriate computing equipment is essential for schools and funding is needed for both ongoing maintenance and procuring new devices.” said Ms Shlegel. “Without adequate government spending on this, schools will continue to shift computing costs onto parents.”

Released on September 16, 2016

See more on Council's priorities for the 2016 ACT election.