Get involved in the national campaign for better public school funding

Launched in October 2010, the Public Schools For Our Future campaign coincides with the Federal Government's review of the funding of schooling.

This is the first time since 1973 that a such a comprehensive review of how schools are funded has been undertaken and is a great chance to get a better deal for our schools.

To get involved in the campaign go to the  campaign website today and

• sign our online petition
• sign up to receive email updates
• tell your friends
• send an email to the PM
• show your support on facebook.

AEU Federal President Angelo Gavrielatos said one of the campaign's objectives was to get as many submissions as possible from teachers and parents to the funding review.

"Teachers are encouraged to work together in schools to put together a submission which would give the expert panel conducting the review a clear idea of the need for additional investment in the school and, most importantly, the benefits of that investment for students," Mr Gavrielatos said.

"This is one of the most important campaigns the union has ever run.

"It is a chance for us to make our case for a fairer federal funding system than the one we have now which delivers only one third of the money to public schools even though we teach two thirds of the students, including the vast majority of those with higher needs.

"We need more resources to cut class sizes and allow teachers to give more individual attention to every child."

At the launch the AEU released the results of the biggest ever survey of teachers and principals which showed:

• The under-funding of public schools has led to higher teacher and principal workloads with 36 per cent of teachers saying they work over 50 hours a week.
  
  Smaller class sizes are strongly supported by teachers as the best way to help them improve student outcomes in the classroom.
• Teachers overwhelmingly believe schools have a problem keeping teachers in the profession and they nominate resource based issues – smaller workloads and less student management issues as the key to tackling the program.
  
  Schools are relying on fundraising to pay for basics such as staff, equipment and library books.

Mr Gavrielatos said the survey showed that the under-funding of schools made them reliant on teachers working longer hours and on fundraising to ensure students got the education they needed.

"Teachers and principals are the glue holding the system together but it cannot continue like this," he said "There is an urgent need for the Federal Government to invest more in our public schools." 

To get involved in the campaign sign up at the campaign website today and show your support on facebook.