Whether it’s crucial years of early learning at childcare, or retraining for a new job in later life – education should be free for everyone.
Public schools
Queensland state schools are the most underfunded in the country – only receiving 89.26% of the minimum funding outlined by the Gonski review. This means that classrooms are under-resourced, teachers are overworked, and parents are covering the gap in creeping public school fees. The Greens will:
- Invest $49 billion over the next decade to ensure every state school is fully funded
- Hire 13,000 extra teachers to reduce class sizes and increase lesson planning time for teachers
- Abolish public school fees
- Introduce a universal, free school breakfast and lunch program
Uni and TAFE
At a time when young people are struggling with stagnant wages and surging house prices, the last thing we should be doing is forcing them to take on tens of thousands of dollars of debt just to get an education. Uni and TAFE fees are also barriers to people going back to retrain as the economy changes.
The Greens will:
- Fully fund unlimited free TAFE and university for everyone
- Raise the rate of Austudy and Youth Allowance to above the poverty line
- Abolish all student HECS-HELP debt