LOCAL SCHOOLS AND PARENTS TO FOOT THE BILL FOR PRIME MINISTER RUDD’S ‘DIGITAL REVOLUTION’
The Member for Berowra, Philip Ruddock MP said today that school communities and parents will have to foot the bill for the extra costs associated with Kevin Rudd’s policy to put computers in schools.
The Rudd Government would leave the state government and schools to pay for the power costs, teacher training, new buildings, insurance and power points required for the extra computers.
“The Federal Government is going to dump the computers at the door of the schools, smile for the photo opportunity and then leave our schools to pay for the extra costs,” Mr Ruddock said.
“If the state governments do not meet their responsibilities these costs will eventually be passed onto parents through higher school fees or through sacrifices in other parts of the school budget.
“Many of our schools simply don’t have the buildings, power points or electricity supply to cope with the extra computers.”
It was pointless leaving the additional costs up to the states because they already had a track record or under funding and neglecting our schools.
“Schools in my electorate will particularly struggle because of the Rudd’s Government’s decision to also abolish the $1.2 billion Investing in Our Schools programme which provided $4.4 Million to 114 schools projects for infrastructure and upgrades,” Philip Ruddock said.
“It is estimated that the extra energy costs for each computer could be more than $300 a year. For a secondary school of 400 students, that’s an additional $127,000 and already Kevin Rudd’s election campaign spin is falling well short of what local parents, teachers and schools expected.
“The Rudd Government must provide more detail on the computers roll out and what schools will have to pay for,” Mr Ruddock concluded.