[Greens-Media] NSW small public schools left defenceless without principals

[John Kaye]

NSW small public schools left defenceless without principals

Media release: 23 November 2013

Plans to strip small NSW public schools of their principals will leave many
without key on-the-ground decision makers and vulnerable to budget cuts and
closure, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

('Downgrades threaten principals in small NSW schools', Sydney Morning
herald, 23 November, p. 15, http://j.mp/1ft3Wmw)

The NSW government is proposing to replace principals with leading teachers
in public schools with annual budgets of less than $1 million. The proposed
'New classification structure for principals'  has been published on the
Department of Education and Communities website (http://j.mp/1e9RXGD) as
part of the award negotiations with teachers.

Dr Kaye said: "Small schools are in the O'Farrell government's firing line.

"As part of the Coalition's relentless drive to slash the public education
budget, schools with less than $1 million annual budgets will be denied the
leadership and recognition of having a principal.

"Instead they will be forced into a network where key decisions will be
made remotely from the school and the community it serves.

"At the same time as the O'Farrell government is dumping more decision
making responsibilities onto school leaders, it is stripping the smallest
of local of principals.

"These schools will be increasingly undefended as Treasury circles the
Education Department's budget looking for places to slice spending.

"Small public schools will be reduced to satellites which will become
increasingly expendable as budget pressures force network principals to
find savings.

"As a National Party Minister, Adrian Piccoli would find it politically
difficult to overtly condemn hundreds of small rural schools to closure as
Labor tried to do when it was in office.

"Instead he is allowing his department to conduct award negotiations that
will put hundreds of small schools at risk.

"These schools are the centre of their communities and closure will condemn
many rural areas to irreversible social and demographic stagnation," 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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