Thursday, 4 December 2025

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (17:55): (1477) My matter is for the Minister for Education. Please reinstate the $118,000 of P–12 complexity allowance and tutor learning initiatives you are cutting from Boort P–12 starting next year. In 2026 you will slash $640 in funding for every student in the school. Within three years those cuts will have blown out to more than $900 per student. Minister, are these cuts for a small remote regional P–12 what your government means when it says:

Victoria’s vision for the Education State is to deliver excellence in every classroom, in every corner of the state.

Losing the P–12 complexity allowance and the tutor learning initiative will plunge this little school into an educational crisis. Already so remote, it sits in a lower socio-educational advantage area, and now your Labor government plans to push it down even further. Sixty-five per cent of Boort P–12 students are classified in the bottom half of socio-educational advantage. These kids and this school need care and kindness, not more cuts. The school council tells me these cuts also guarantee a decrease in one-on-one and small group intervention support. STEM is today’s key to education and employment, yet Boort secondary’s science, technology and maths budget will lose an immediate $40,000. NAPLAN shows Boort well below the national average for maths in years 7 and 9. Cutting more money from this budget can only make that worse. Minister, the numbers just do not add up. Why aren’t Boort P–12 students, staff and families receiving the support and the funding they so urgently need?