THANK

YOU

LABOUR!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25735391-1242,00.html

A SCHOOL with just one pupil for 2010 has been given a $140,000 government grant
to build a covered playground - even though it already has a new one.

Another $110,000 grant from the Rudd Government's $14.7 billion education
stimulus package will be used for classroom refurbishment at tiny The Lagoon
Public School, 20km from Bathurst in New South Wales central west.

But even locals say it is a shocking waste of money. The tiny rural school has
one teacher and five pupils, two of whom go to high school next year.

The mother of two girls there said she was considering transferring them to a
larger school.

That would leave just one pupil - the teacher's daughter - as the beneficiary of
the federal funds.

The school is one of 1500 to receive Primary Schools for the 21st Century
program funds.

Government documents show it has been given $140,000 for a covered open learning
area (COLA) and $110,000 for "upgraded classrooms".

But a neighbour told The Sunday Telegraph that the school had a new shaded
learning area built just two years ago.

"This school has been granted $250,000 for a COLA and classroom refurbishment -
it already has a COLA, which was built over summer approximately two years ago,"
he said.

Monica Betts, whose daughters attend the school, said the funds could have been
spent attracting more pupils.

"It is a lot of money," she said. "They could have spent $50,000 trying to get
more people here."

NSW Opposition education spokesman Adrian Piccoli said the program had been flawed.

"Small schools need to be maintained, just like larger schools do, but it's the
height of incompetence to spend borrowed money on unnecessary projects," he said.

The Opposition cited five new schools that received funding under the 21st
Century scheme.

One was John Palmer Public School, which got $546,000, despite opening only last
year.

Australian Council of State School Organisations president Steve Carter said he
was extremely frustrated by the scheme's inequitable allocation.

"We would very much prefer a tighter, better thought out, needs-based allocation
of funding, managed properly to give local school communities the resources they
need," he said.

Arthur Phillip High School, in Parramatta, had sought money to repair its walls,
floors, roofs and sewerage, but was rejected.

Keira High School missed out on funds from the Science and Language Centres
program, despite labs, built in the late 1960s, being below safety standards.

Rooty Hill High also missed out, despite mould in its labs and cupboards falling
off the wall.

Federal Education Minister Julie Gillard blamed the NSW Government for the
funding decision and sought an urgent review of the school's eligibility.

"The NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) must have assessed that it
was in need of new or refurbished facilities," a spokesman said.

"The Deputy Prime Minister has requested her department to hold immediate
discussions with the NSW DET to investigate claims that this school may be
non-viable in 2010".

--
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ipvdBnU8F8
  - KRudd at his finest.

"The Labour Party is corrupt beyond redemption!"
  - Labour hasbeen Mark Latham in a moment of honest clarity.

"This is the recession we had to have!"
  - Paul Keating explaining why he gave Australia another Labour recession.

"Silly old bugger!"
  - Well known ACTU pisspot and sometime Labour prime minister Bob Hawke
responding to a pensioner who dared ask for more.

"By 1990, no child will live in poverty"
  - Bob Hawke again, desperate to win another election.

"A billion trees ..."
  - Borke, pissed as a newt again.