Presented by Robert Clark MP		www.robertclark.net

ALP teacher numbers don’t meet class cap promise

Education Minister, Phil Gude, says the number of extra teachers the ALP proposes to engage is only 1/2 the number needed to meet its class size capping promise.

Department of Education figures show an extra 1330 teachers at a cost of $74 million per annum would be required to achieve the ALP’s claim. An additional 900 classrooms would also need to be built to accommodate students and teachers at a cost of $72 million, which expenditure the ALP also does not address.

Mr Gude said that the ALP policy would cost $146 million in the first year and $74 million yearly after that.

"This one promise from the ALP consumes all of the $67 million sustainable cash surplus contained in the 1999-2000 State budget," he said.

(News Release, Office of the Minister for Education, 26 August 1999)