Teachers Alliance is appalled at the lack of public opposition to Public Private Partnership schools by Victorian AEU officials. In fact the Victorian AEU Leadership has publicly stated its support for PPPs.

PPPs will damage school education through the effective privatisation of new school buildings and facilities. We call on the AEU to campaign against PPPs and to demand that the Brumby Government use some of its massive state budget surplus to adequately fund state schools.

Public private partnerships are big business scams, for example the Spencer Street Station development costs about $300 million. However the State government will pay out $1.8 billion for the project.

PPPs means schools losing control of their facilities and buildings. Their facilities and buildings will be run by a business consortium manager. These consortiums are usually composed of huge developers and merchant bankers and these consortiums are in it to get mega profits like the Spencer Street Station project.

To make profits the buildings may not built appropriately, builders could compromise on materials and design and such schools or renovations could begin to fall apart in maybe 5 years time.

Additionally if a school wants to make changes to facilities or rooms it first has to get permission from the builder. This could mean changing a contract and extra costs.

Because PPPs are big business scams, they put a drain on the State’s budget. The Surplus will be drained away. In fact $2.7 billion is what is currently drained each year from the Vic. State budget due to various PPPs. This will increase as more PPPs come to fruition. In turn this puts pressure on the Education budget and on  every public service including the wages and conditions of all public servants. That’s why the public service unions and all other Teacher unions are opposed to PPPs.

All we have to do is look at the UK model. A study of the UK’s National Health service which has existed under a PPP for the last 15 years showed that it cost 20% of staffing in hospitals and 30% of beds. In other words the Health system was being bled dry.

Another aspect of these PPPs is that it is impossible to get access to information re the financing of their contracts. It is all kept secret, except the Spencer street project which was exposed by accident. Why? Because it is an embarrassment to the government and the public would be outraged if they knew about the rorting that these projects represent.

Victorian State schools are the worst funded schools in Australia. Professor David Hayward has estimated that the funding per capita is the same as under the Kennett government. Therefore the AEU must campaign for adequate government funding for the renovation and building of government schools. There is no good reason to give up on this idea, especially when a serious campaign to demand exactly this has not yet been undertaken.