Public Education Day, March 15

The Australian Education Union (AEU) has designated March 15 as a 
national day of activities to promote public education and raise awareness 
of the threat to the public school system coming from the Howard 
Government's policies. All States and Territories will be involved in 
coordinated events, which will include:

* highlighting the positive role of public education in Australian society;

* outlining the perils facing public education as a consequence of Federal 
Government policies;

* demanding that the forthcoming federal budget on May 22 allocate a 
significant proportion of the national surplus to public education.

Activities across the country will include a celebration of public 
education, open days at schools, displays of students' work and 
performances, musical performances by students, past and present students 
talking about the value of public education, migrant/refugee students and 
adults explaining the role of public education in their settlement in 
Australia, and deputations to local federal members of Parliament.

Leaflets will be handed out to parents explaining the unfair nature of the 
government's enrolment benchmark adjustment scheme which hands over 
millions of dollars of public school funding to rich private schools. As 
the Queensland teachers' Union put it, "The [Federal Government] is helping 
rich schools get richer and making state schools make do with the funding 
leftovers."

The AEU Victorian Branch will be coordinating action with the Victorian 
Council of School Organisations and Parents Victoria. "AEU members, working 
with the community, will show their pride in public education, and their 
determination to win the levels of funding needed, said Ann Taylor of the 
Victorian Branch.