Local campaign keeps schools open

The Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, today welcomed the Tasmanian Labor/Green Government back down on plans to close twenty small schools as a budget savings measure.

“To make this decision in the first place suggests the Labor/Green Government in Tasmania is completely out of touch with what is needed in regional communities,” Mr Pyne said. 

“I was in Tasmania last week visiting some of the schools slated for closure where over the past two years almost $14 million in Building the Education Revolution funding has been spent on new buildings,” he said.

“There is no doubt whatsoever that the Tasmanian Labor/Greens Government got this decision spectacularly wrong and it is a shame that parents and students had to be put through the emotional wringer over the last month. 

“It was the grassroots efforts of parents and friends at the schools, along with the State Opposition Education Spokesman, Michael Ferguson, Senator Eric Abetz and the Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie who were critical in bringing about this reversal and I was delighted to assist the campaign,” Mr Pyne said.

July 4, 2011

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