Government selling our schools (warning may contain rant)

[Tim86]

Apparently now is a good time to sell, at least according to the Qld Liberal government. They have decided to sell 6 of our schools in Qld. One of them happens to be the school in my suburb.

I moved to Salisbury partly because of the high school that one day my kids could have walked just 50m to get to. And partly because they have an awesome oval that the whole community uses and I often cross the road and go there to kick a ball around with family and friends. Now it's all just getting sold off to the highest bidder.

Nyanda high school has been around for 80 years, had just had 8 million spent on renovations, is at full capacity with over 300 kids, and is the only school within the area. In fact it's a 30 minute bus ride to the nearest school now, and probably a 60 minute bus ride to a school that's not full to capacity already and can actually take on the rejected kids from Nyanda high.

The government closed down Acacia Ridge high and merged it with Salisbury high (Nyanda), and now they've closed down Salisbury high too. So what's left in the area? Nothing.

And I just love that the education minister says it's not about money. Yet only 1 of 2 schools that was earmarked for closure and survived, survived by saying it will sell 3/4 of its land if it's allowed to stay open. No it's not about selling land and making a profit... but it just so happens that being able to sell it's land and make a profit while still able to operate was the only thing saving the school.

This just shows how short sighted the government is. The fact that they'll sacrifice the quality of education in our country, overcrowding surrounding schools and massively increasing the travel distance to an educational institution for our kids, in order to make a quick buck from some prime real-estate.

And yes I know we have debt and it's wonderful to pay down debt. But the fact is that they're going to need to get a really nice surplus for all the future unemployment benefits that they'll have to pay the next generation because they are too uneducated to actually get a job.

---Okay and now for the bit that actually relates to my property investment:

Now I'm left wondering what's going to happen to my suburb? What's going to happen to my house price now that a major piece of infrastructure has been removed? What's going to happen to house prices after they develop the land and chuck in a massive industrial estate where once was a really nice school? And are they likely to put in an industrial estate considering the school was on the border of the existing industrial estate, offering a nice buffer between the industrial area and the residential area?

I wish it were possible to take the government to court and sue them for the loss of an essential piece of infrastructure and the decrease in value of my property.

Anyway that's the end of my rant. It's not like getting angry over it is going to solve anything. Nothing to do now but to bend over and wait for it.

 

[INVSTOR]

The same is happening in my suburb in WA! If you are lucky they will put industrial in place of it! A lot of TAFE's are being sold off also.

 

[Ausprop]

unfortunately the gravy train is coming to an end and it seems we have to pay for the excess of the past years. WA just lost its AAA credit rating so now it's a scramble to sell assets and cut programs, however it's really hard for people to accept as we have always had it so good here. WA teachers striking today, sign of discontent to come. Personally I think scrap the new football stadium - all that money to watch a bunch of grown men kick a ball around the oval... unbelievable

 

[Aaron_C]

I didn't read the announcement - how did WA lose its AAA? If anything we (Victoria) are the most broke.

 

[Ausprop]

I didn't read the announcement - how did WA lose its AAA? If anything we (Victoria) are the most broke.

grappling with too much population growth and not enough revenue. the trouble is we can't block the borders as you would with a national economy, really the best outcome would be to let housing costs blow out and let economics sort it out. this could be done by strangling infrastructure t new subdivisions for example.

news is here:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/...dit-rating-loss-puts-spending-under-pressure/

and

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/18999444/state-cant-afford-big-projects/

 

[Ausprop]

If anything we (Victoria) are the most broke.

I think the problem is across the board now, the cupboards have been ransacked and are bare

 

[INVSTOR]

unfortunately the gravy train is coming to an end and it seems we have to pay for the excess of the past years. WA just lost its AAA credit rating so now it's a scramble to sell assets and cut programs, however it's really hard for people to accept as we have always had it so good here. WA teachers striking today, sign of discontent to come. Personally I think scrap the new football stadium - all that money to watch a bunch of grown men kick a ball around the oval... unbelievable

It will be great for Packer having the football stadium beside the Casino, something to do after the footy. Very important for Perth.

 

[Tim86]

The same is happening in my suburb in WA! If you are lucky they will put industrial in place of it! A lot of TAFE's are being sold off also.

What makes you say if we're lucky industrial will get put in place of it?

If anything I'd prefer residential. Or maybe a supermarket or something. I really don't want to be surrounded by an industrial area. Would make my property value plummet. I'm wanting to stay in my PPOR for the rest of my life. Now instead of raising my kids in a nice place close to the school, I face the prospect of raising them adjacent to an industrial area.

So many people in the community were in tears when they announced the closure. It's a real blow.

 

[INVSTOR]

What makes you say if we're lucky industrial will get put in place of it?

If anything I'd prefer residential. Or maybe a supermarket or something. I really don't want to be surrounded by an industrial area. Would make my property value plummet. I'm wanting to stay in my PPOR for the rest of my life. Now instead of raising my kids in a nice place close to the school, I face the prospect of raising them adjacent to an industrial area.

So many people in the community were in tears when they announced the closure. It's a real blow.

A bit of sarcasm. I sent you a private message.

 

[handyandy]

.....had just had 8 million spent on renovations, is at full capacity with over 300 kids............

How idiotic to spend $8mil for 300 students!

As mentioned it's time to pay for Labour's excesses.

Cheers

 

[INVSTOR]

How idiotic to spend $8mil for 300 students!

As mentioned it's time to pay for Labour's excesses.

Cheers

Labor spends $8mill on a school and are criticised for it.

Liberals are spending over $700million on a football stadium. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/do-we-really-need-a-new-footy-stadium-20120903-25958.html

What about Liberals excesses? I also have a half finished fire station down the road from me due to their wasteful mismanagement, work resumed a couple of weeks ago after sitting idle for several months.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/17204201/tradies-owed-for-state-work/

 

[Tim86]

How idiotic to spend $8mil for 300 students!

As mentioned it's time to pay for Labour's excesses.

Cheers

That 8 million wasn't for only 300 students. It was for all the future generations to come through that school, which will end up being a lot more than the current 300 kids there. That's the thing that is being missed here, it's a long term investment. One that looks like a complete waste now that it's being sold off in the short term.

You've got to remember this school has already been around for 80 years. So far it's provided schooling for about 5600 kids (average 350 kids per 5 years). Remembering that 80% of these kids are from the lowest quartile of family incomes. These are disadvantaged kids, and it's already being reported that a lot of the kids are going to drop out of school altogether now that their school is being closed and it's too hard to find another one (remember all the others are 30+ mins away and they are full anyway). So lets say that it impacts their potential earnings because they are no longer elligible for university. It's been reported (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-...o-earn-one-million-more-over-lifetime/4330506) that not going to university will earn you about $1 000 000 less over your life time. Lets say over an 80 year period another 5600 kids go through the school (of course this is ignoring the growth rate of the school, it will probably be much more than this). Lets say they don't end up going to university now, that's 5600 kids missing out on $1 000 000 over the next 80 years. That's $5 600 000 000 less earnings. Tax on that at 30% is about $1 680 000 000. So that initial $8 000 000 investment in the school only needs 4.7% of it's students to be better educated and go onto university in only the next 2 generations in order for the taxes alone to cover the initial investment. But chances are, providing good education to disadvantaged kids that would otherwise get lost in overcrowded schools, will most likely result in much much more than 4.7% having better chances of higher earnings later on in life.

And all of that doesn't even take into consideration how much educated people contribute more to society rather than uneducated/unemployed people. The cost of sacrificing education for short term gain is monumental.

This is why education is important, not just for the well-being of kids, etc... but for the bottom line for our economy.

 

[marg4000]

Governments open and close schools all the time. The Beattie/Bligh government closed quite a lot of schools in its time particularly in the Wynnum area, as did previous governments. I lost a job in 1992 after Labor came to power and closed the education facility I worked in. Always sad for those involved.
Marg

 

[Tim86]

Governments open and close schools all the time. The Beattie/Bligh government closed quite a lot of schools in its time particularly in the Wynnum area, as did previous governments. I lost a job in 1992 after Labor came to power and closed the education facility I worked in. Always sad for those involved.
Marg

Yep don't underestimate politicians ability to screw people over no matter what party they belong to.

But some school closures are justified. If you've got a half empty school close to another half empty school, close one down and send the kids to the other school so that they are full. It makes sense. But what the Liberals are doing is finding the schools that are the most profitable to sell and then closing them down even when they are at full capacity and there are no other schools around in the area.

I think it's a bit ridiculous as well, on the federal level to have the Gonski reforms, but then on the state level to be shutting down necessary schools.

I've got a bit of a soft spot when it comes to kids, I'm a counsellor for kids, and it just sucks seeing kids getting screwed over. Yes there is debt that needs to be repaid, but is one of the first things we should be sacrificing our kids education?

 

[marty998]

How idiotic to spend $8mil for 300 students!

As mentioned it's time to pay for Labour's excesses.

Cheers

I found it ironic that people in my electorate helped throw Labor out by lining up under a COLA built by Labor and voting in a polling place built using the Labor BER scheme.

I don't see a classroom as an excess. I see the stadium mentioned before as an excess. I see the bloody stupid West Connex announced today in Sydney as guaranteed excessive future failure.

To the OP, I hope you can convince enough people to fight hard enough to reverse this madness.

 

[Hoffy]

. Yes there is debt that needs to be repaid, but is one of the first things we should be sacrificing our kids education?

The govt have stated that all funds from the sales will be reinvested directly into education infrastructure.

 

[Tim86]

I found it ironic that people in my electorate helped throw Labor out by lining up under a COLA built by Labor and voting in a polling place built using the Labor BER scheme.

I don't see a classroom as an excess. I see the stadium mentioned before as an excess. I see the bloody stupid West Connex announced today in Sydney as guaranteed excessive future failure.

To the OP, I hope you can convince enough people to fight hard enough to reverse this madness.

The Liberal Education Minister has already come out and declared that his word is final and there will be no appeal process and that they will be closed at the end of this year.

I did go onto his facebook page and congratulate him on his decision. But I told him not to stop there. That there are literally thousands of other schools in QLD that he can shut down and sell the land to make money as well. I let him know that it would be a great strategy for the future and that he should get the Health Minister on board and start selling all the hospitals as well.

Amazingly he hasn't replied to me. Who would have thought.

 

[Tim86]

The govt have stated that all funds from the sales will be reinvested directly into education infrastructure.

Oh yeah the government has given their word.

Have they said what educational infrastructure they will spend it on? No.

Have they said how much they are getting from the sales? No.

Have they said how they will spend the money from the sales to make up for the infrastructure lost in the areas where they have closed the schools? No.

What they have said is: "We are selling your schools, but don't worry trust us with the money we are making from it because we'll spend it on education, but just don't ask us about details".

It's like shutting down Sydney airport and the government saying "oh don't worry about it we will spend the profits on transport".

Yeah I don't think I'll be swallowing that any time soon.

 

[HiEquity]

I've got to admit in WA I'm pretty disappointed. The Stadium, Elisabeth Quay, etc etc are all signs of bad priorities from this govt in the context of ballooning debt and a credit rating downgrade which it alone is responsible for - it is happening on their watch. On the upside new hospital infrastructure investment gets a big tick, although of course it might not be big enough....

Meanwhile, WA claims it doesn't get a fair share of the GST (under a formula which Colin Barnett helped negotiate in the Court govt) but says no thank you to a bucketload of Federal funds under Gonski and in renewable energy.

Yet our situation is now so dire we have to cut a bunch of teaching staff in the public system while public funding for private school students remains unchanged!

And in the Federal sphere, there is now money raining down from on high for any new road you might care to want but nothing at all for public transport / rail projects. Those are somehow a State issue - WTF???

BTW I regularly walk past Parliament House in Perth these days - I can remember those fountains lit up at night as a kid while driving down the Freeway. Anyone noticed how that doesn't happen anymore? When you get close to them you can see why - they have completely fallen apart - the concrete has come off in chunks exposing the reo underneath. The only word that can describe the state of the whole facade is decrepit. These days you have a decrepit Parliament House on the hill overlooking a sea of new stainless steel and glass buildings in the city... I couldn't help but note the irony of that symbolism when looking at the state of public finances here in the State of Excitement!

 

[Tim86]

I just read that apparently the surveyors were out measuring everything up at the Salisbury High School before the decision to close it was even announced.

I guess the moral of the story is don't rely on anything the government can make a $ from selling.