[Greens-Media] NSW governments get 'F' for school planning

[John Kaye]

NSW governments get 'F' for school planning

Media release: 26 September 2012

The O'Farrell government must learn the lesson of the failure of its
predecessors to ensure that public school places are available to meet
population growth, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

('Search for offices to rent as schools run out of space' Sydney Moring
Herald, 16 September 2012, http://j.mp/NPt61d)

Dr Kaye said: "The Lower North Shore community is paying the price of the
Department of Education's incompetent demographic planning and greedy
governments selling public school lands.

"It's not that hard to predict the demand for comprehensive schooling but
the Department has consistently under-estimated the need for places.

"Both Labor and Coalition governments have seen public schools sites as
cash cows.

"Schools like Crows Nest Boys High and Castlecrag Public should have been
maintained against future population growth.  Instead they were sold off to
prop up the budget bottom line.

"High rise education is a poor substitute for the schools that have been
sold across the Lower North Shore.

"The O'Farrell government should learn the lessons and make sure that no
public school site is sold unless the money goes back into purchasing a
better school in the same area.

"Comprehensive public schools in Sydney's inner-southern and eastern
suburbs are similarly overflowing with parents forced to move their
children across the city," Dr Kaye said.

For more information:  John Kaye 0407 195 455

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John Kaye
Greens NSW MP
phone: 0407 195 455
web: www.john.nsw.greens.org.au
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