Education Ministers meet

Concern over funding cuts effecting NSW schools

Overcrowded and vulnerable public schools in north and western Sydney could be hit hardest by budget cuts over the next decade as the federal government strips up to $9.6 billion from NSW schools.

The news came as NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli pleaded with his colleagues in Canberra to commit to the final two years of Gonski funding. South Australian and Victoria Education ministers intend to take the fight up to the Federal Government on this issue. Education Ministers are meeting with Pyne today to thrash out important national issues in education.

The figures are based on the Coalition's commitment to tie funding to inflation rather than the former Labor government's plan to increase funding between 3 per cent and 4.7 per cent per year. 

Labor's acting education Federal spokesman, Mark Butler, said the cuts over the course of a decade would affect every student in the classroom.

"This new data shows the true impact of the government's savage school cuts; quite simply, the students who need the most help will be those hardest hit," he said. "By walking away from the Gonski reforms, vulnerable students will miss out on the resources they need to catch up, and risk falling further behind in their education."