Mr Shorten treating striking teachers like April Fools

The Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten must be pulling an April Fool’s day stunt today, as he is apparently addressing striking teachers to talk about schools cuts when he cut $1.2 billion from school education before the last election. Mr Shorten’s $1.2 billion cut was the entire additional budgeted funding for schools in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. If Labor had won the election, Western Australian schools would not have received $120 million in additional Commonwealth funding over four years. Mr Shorten should not be treating teachers and parents in Western Australia like April Fools, he should be honest about his cuts when addressing striking teachers today. The Coalition restored Mr Shorten’s $1.2 billion funding cut to the Budget, meaning schools in Western Australia will benefit from additional Commonwealth funding. We have delivered a truly national school funding agreement and are increasing Commonwealth funding on average by 50% per student over the next four years for Government schools, and 23% for non-government schools. The Coalition Government is focussed on putting students first by improving the national curriculum, examining how to ensure our teachers have world’s best training and increasing school autonomy and parental engagement. 1 April 2014