P&C wants breakdown of figures
From Canberra Times - Elizabeth Bellamy
The ACT Government has been accused of artificially inflating the cost of running some schools on its “hit list” by including disabled students in special-needs units in its calculations.
There are 1667 students with disabilities at public schools, with 1327 of these in mainstream schools, each costing an estimated $20,440 last financial year to educate.
This is substantially higher than the $9248 it cost on average to teach primary school pupils, $11,132 for high school students, and $12,773 college students.
Of the 39 schools listed for closure in this month’s budget, 10 have special-needs units, which cater for autistic, hearing impaired and students with other disabilities.
The schools are Holt, Melrose, Mt Neighbour, Rivett, Gilmore, Giralang, Village Creek and Weston primary schools, Kambah High and Dickson College.
A document outlining the average cost to educate students at all public schools was published by the ACT Department of Education on its website on Tuesday.
However, Opposition spokeswoman for education Vicki Dunne said yesterday it was unfair to include disabled students in the Government’s calculations.
“The calculations of the cost per student by school have been put together in a way that suggests that some schools fated for closure are wasteful,” she said.
“The cost of educating a child in a special-education unit will naturally be higher and this is a cost the community is happy to pay. “However, including that cost in these figures for the purposes of justifying the Government’s position is misleading and designed to set school against school.”
A spokeswoman for Education Minister Andrew Barr said the inclusion of disabled students in cost calculations inflated the figure by an average of $405 per student.
She said the department would update the list today to indicate what it cost to educate disabled students at each school.
However, ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations president Jane Gorrie called on the Government to reveal a detailed breakdown of its costs per student.
“We need to know if they include things like the cost of excursions and teacher salaries,” she said.
“We need to know what’s in them to say whether they’re valid or not.”
Mr Barr’s spokeswoman said teacher salaries and the “whole cost of running a school” were factored into the department’s calculations.
There are also 22 pre-schools on the Government’s closure list, with 14 to close at the end of the year.
To view the Government’s closure proposal, visit www.decs.act.gov.au