Tram Town
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
| Category: Politics When I took my children to school yesterday I noticed an AEU placard about 800mm * 600mm hanging at the main gate ON SCHOOL PROPERTY. It was relatively inoffensive reading "Public Education It Is Our Future", though the trend in the numbers we see would suggest the opposite. The usual small print authorisations by a bloke from the AEU appeared below the main text. The placard is part of a campaign by the AEU against federal education policy and, in particular, Dr Brendan Nelson. Given that the placard was clearly part of a union campaign it surprised me to find it hanging there so I queried the prinicipal by email. He told me this morning that the placard had come from the AEU with a note saying that it had been endorsed by no less than Lynne Kosky the state minister for Education and Training. No such endorsement appears on the placard. Without having followed the issue through, I had assumed that the school, or some teacher within the school, was using school property to promote a particular union's issues. I believe most people would interpret it this way and I do not approve. If Lynne Kosky has an agenda to push, I think she should make her own posters with her own endorsement and hang them somewhere other than our schools. UPDATE: I contacted DE&T to determine whether the minister had given approval and was (very promptly) sent the exact memo which contains: Circular 18/2004 Public Education - It is our Future campaignSent to schools on the 12th of February. UPUPDATE: So it wasn't Lynne Kosky though you have to imagine she had a hand in it. They just don't seem to get it. The campaign is not some sort of benign followup to the "Bringing Learning to Life schools promotion", it is a campaign to convince the punters not to vote Liberal because of its education funding policy. It is a political campaign and our schools are being used to advertise it. As somebody said to me this morning: "You are right - it's unacceptable, and an abuse of community facilities". |
