Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, 22 May 2015

State Budget must address disability education

funding crisis
Premier Will Hodgman was today urged to address the funding crisis for students living with
disability in the state budget to be delivered next week.
Kristen Desmond, founder of the Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby, says that in the
wake of the Federal Budget, which failed to deliver promised disability loadings, the situation for
students living with disability is now at crisis point.
Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby parent satisfaction surveys have shown that an
estimated one in three Tasmanian students living with disability did not receive adequate support,
with an estimated one in two students with disability not receiving any additional funding to help
schools to provide appropriate support, said Ms Desmond.
The situation in our schools was now at crisis point, she said.
Premier Will Hodgman needs to fight hard for Tasmanias interests and weve heard nothing
from him about the Abbott Governments broken promise of the full implementation of a disability
loading for our schools, leaving them drastically under resourced. she said.
Mr Hodgman must use the state budget to prioritise all Gonski funding to where it is needed
most and that means into schools to support students living with disability and for other students
to overcome disadvantage, she said.
Terry Polglase, AEU Tasmanian Branch, says the state budget is the time for the Premier to
finally properly prioritise Gonski school funding for students most in need.
A greater proportion of this years Gonski funding was allocated to upgrading the skills of the
workforce than what was given to schools to support student learning, said Mr Polglase.
Will Hodgman must demonstrate a genuine commitment to Gonski by reversing last years
damaging cuts and prioritising all Gonski school funding to where its needed most. That means
prioritising funding for students living with disability and to address other measures of
disadvantage and to remediate the under-resourcing predicament in schools, said Mr Polglase.
These calls come on the same day that the Tasmanian Disability Education Reform Lobby
(TDERL) and the Australian Education Union launch their first-ever joint survey of teachers
dealing with disability in schools.
This survey is the first time teachers have had a chance to tell us in detail about the Tasmanian
disability education support system, said Ms Desmond.
Sadly, we believe the teacher survey, in combination with the parent satisfaction survey
launched on the 8th of May, will paint a stark picture of the desperate under resourcing of
students with disability in our schools, she said.
The joint AEU-TDERL survey was prompted, in part, by a five-month battle by Ms Desmond to
obtain figures on the number of Tasmanian school students with disability. Education Minister

Jeremy Rockliffs office refused to release the data and Ms Desmond has now been forced to
lodge an FOI request with the Federal Government.
ENDS: For information contact Kristen Desmond 0448 037 064