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Not Pike-ing it over picking up the bill!

July 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Not the 1300 meal! (edited)

Not the 1300 meal! (edited)

Maybe the reason Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike won’t take ownership for the Forced closures of Victoria Schools is that she was out to lunch! In the news is word that she doesn’t mind having a nice lunch:

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information FoI show that then health minister Bronwyn Pike lunched with Victoria’s Agent-General in London David Buckingham at Covent Garden in October 2004 at a cost of more than $1300 to taxpayers.

via Taxpayers pick up tab at swanky eateries | National Breaking News | News.com.au.

Wow! Maybe she should take the School Councillors that are taking the blame for the school closures that she is over seeing, out to one of these lunches! I mean they are slightly helping her out politically. How much longer can the Victorian Government/Education Department keep hiding behind the hard working parents of Victoria on this issue?

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A small win in the Fight to make (Bronwyn) Pike do whats Right

July 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Education Minister, Bronwyn Pike

Earlier in the week I wrote a little post about the fight to get the Victorian Government, Victorian Education Department, Bronwyn Pike and the Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks John Brumby to take ownership of School Closure/Merger decisions in the state due to the fact that, although they are getting school councils to vote on these decisions, they are also activily forcing many of these councils into these decisions.

Well the first victory in the campaign has been won with the Minister giving in on the fight to have them come forth with the list of schools that have merged or closed user there government. The story was broken by The Age and its Education Editor, Farrah Tomazin and Education Reporter, Miki Perkins:

MORE than 150 Victorian public schools have closed or merged since Labor has been in government, with the Education Department reaping millions of dollars from schools that have shut down.

Education Minister Bronwyn Pike yesterday bowed to pressure and released a list of schools that have closed or merged since 1999, insisting each one had been a voluntary decision by the local community.

via School closures list released in Government about-face.

So now we have them admitting that there have been a lot of schools changing structure, now its time to push on and ask that they take the ownership for these school closures instead of laying the blame squarely at the feet of the hard working Parents that give up hours of there time with no reward to sit on school councils to help not only their kids but all the other kids at the school during their time there and into the future (if the schools have a futrue depending on the will of the Government/Department!):

But with more mergers and closures to come, Ms Pike rejected Opposition claims the Government had a “hit list” of schools.

“It’s always a decision that the community themselves make,” she said.

Why can’t the Government that is elected to Govern and make the hard decisions own the decisions that they are making? Why must you blame us Minister? And it is blame and it is hiding from scrutiny! Its weak! I challenge you to stand up strong. Say bugger the political fallout (which to be honest there would be little as no one actually believes your not forcing schools to merger anyway), I am going to do what is right, what I was elected to do because it is right, not that it is popular! Because to be honest, I have been a labour voter my whole life, but this has turned me off them and the only way they can win back my vote is by being strong and doing what is right for a change!

Oh, by the way, your list is already wrong! For one, Lyndale and GreenSlopes Primary schools have agreed to merge! Do you know of any others missing off the list? Leave a comment below!

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Forced School Mergers in Victoria

June 30, 2009 By 3 Comments

The Victorian Labour Government loves claiming that they don’t close schools, that they leave it up to the School communities (and more to the point) the School Councils to decide the fate of there schools! For those of you that have been through the process know, that although there is elements of truth to the story, the part of the story the forget to tell is that they have made the decisions behind the scenes and do everything in there power to make sure the out comes that they want are achieved and that the School Councils are the ones the when left with out any other decision, have to do the actual vote to close the school and therefor wear the blame (and thats what the government and education department do, blame the school council) for the rest of time, with the Government trying to wash their hands of the issue and remain clean so that they can bash the Liberal party and Jeff Kennett about the number of schools they closed.

Now I know some schools are probably redundant and that money can be spent better on one bigger school rather then two small schools, but my argument and goal is to have the State Government and the Education department to live up too their responsibility and own the decision to have schools close or merge (notice I didn’t say to make the decision? That’s because there already making the decision, they are just hiding behind the school councils to own the decision).

Now your school might not have been involved in a school merger and you might say, why do I care. With all the extra work and discussions that are taking place, it has to be more expensive to try to have the school councils talked/forced in to the decision then it is to just make the decision and live with the political backlash that might come!

So I will write more on the site in the coming weeks (assuming that there isn’t an about face by the government) but in the mean time, if you have been through the Building Futures program and been part of a school that has merged because of it and you have some stories to tell about the tactics and the process, either leave a comment below or email me at mollyfud@gmail.com.

Lets see if we can get the Government to come clean and be strong on an issue for once, instead of spending there time commenting on TV shows and Celebrities as they seem to be at the present time!

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