Melbourne’s urban fringe will be showered in an election year cash splurge with the state government allocating more than $350 million to build 12 new schools.
The new schools announcement marks another chapter in Labor’s pitch to growth areas as the November election approaches.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced the May budget would include $353.2 million to build nine primary schools and three high schools.
All but one of those new schools will be built in outer Melbourne or fast-growing areas in regional Victoria.
The new schools will all open in 2020, except for a new high school campus in Seddon, which is due to open in 2021.
Point Cook South and Craigieburn South will gain new high schools.
However, the final funding for the primary schools at Armstrong Creek West and Lucas, as well as Seddon Secondary,had already been announced.
Daniel Andrews is spending big on new schools.
Mr Andrews said the funding allocation was an “investment in our kids’ future”.
“We’re giving families in our growth areas certainty that they will have a great local school, close to home,” he said.
It comes after the state government announced last month that it would use almost $237 million to buy land for 13 other new schools that would be predominantly located in outer-suburban areas. That list also included the Seddon Secondary campus.
The government will need to negotiate with property owners to buy the land for those extra 13 schools.
The coming state budget also includes $46.1 million for facilities at seven schools opening next year, such as gyms and classrooms.
And $18.8 million will be allocated to building the first stage of the Docklands Primary School.
Planning and early works will also begin for another nine new schools, including Armstrong Creek Secondary School, an additional McKinnon Secondary College campus, Fishermans Bend Secondary School, Leneva Primary School in Wodonga East and Miners Rest Primary School.
Many of those new schools earmarked for planning and early works have also been previously announced.
Opposition education spokesman Tim Smith said building new schools was important but Victoria needed a plan to decentralise its population rather than “piling more and more people into outer suburban Melbourne”.
He said the government should also place greater emphasis on lifting education standards inside classrooms and do the “really hard policy grunt work of improving student outcomes” and teacher quality.
The Coalition has pledged $14 million to build a new performing arts centre at Albert Park College, in the marginal Labor seat Albert Park, if it wins the November election.
Education Minister James Merlino said Victoria needed to accommodate an extra 90,000 students by 2022 and up to 60,000 of them were expected to attend state schools.
He accused the previous Coalition government of failing to plan for future growth in the education system.
This year, 11 new schools opened in Victoria to help ease the strain of the booming population on the state’s education system.
SOURCE: The Age: Benjamin Preiss
