Garrett skipped confession at Our Lady of the Rosary

Schools Minister Peter Garrett’s welcome at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic School in St Mary’s today might not have been so warm if they knew Labor couldn’t guarantee school fees would not go up under their proposed changes to school funding.

“Our Lady of the Rosary in the Lindsay electorate stands to lose up to $1.8 million in funding if indexation is not maintained at current levels. This would be a $4,000 increase in school fees that parents would have to find,” said Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education.

“All Mr Garrett needs to do is stop obfuscating and guarantee indexation at current levels,” Mr Pyne said.

“I would urge Mr Garrett to be upfront with non-government schools he visits in the future about the potential cuts under Labor,” he said.

“Until we have a guarantee that indexation will be maintained at current levels, every non-government school in Australia is on Labor’s private school hit-list.

“Only the Coalition is guaranteeing the full $4.2 billion in indexation, which will take the pressure off school fees and teacher’s jobs,” Mr Pyne said.

February 21, 2012