Science upgrades sidelined in schools spend

Upgrades to existing high school science labs join a growing list of bungled projects under the Rudd Government's failing Education Revolution, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"According to the guidelines, confirmed today by the Deputy Prime Minister's office, if a school has an existing science block that needs some work, they can forget it," Mr Pyne said.

There are many more schools that might need an upgrade to existing facilities, meaning funds would go further, assisting more schools across Australia. If you're going to spend a billion dollars of taxpayer's money, why not give schools what they want and need?

Parents, teachers and principals writing to Julia Gillard have suggested that on average, a science lab might cost $1 million to upgrade to 21^st Century standards, and a classroom would cost $100,000 at most to upgrade to a state of the art language laboratory.

But the Minister insists that only $2 million grants will be given to schools that will have to build new buildings - whether they need them or not.

"When this stimulus package was announced the Deputy Prime Minister said that schools were chosen because every principal in the country had a pet project waiting in the wings," Mr Pyne said.

"However, it seems the Labor Party knows best when it comes to what school communities need. Under the former Government's Investing in our schools program, money went directly to schools, bypassing the red tape completely," he said.

"Given that this comes on top of the bungled Computers in Schools, Trades Training Centres, the Education Investment Fund, the National School Pride Program and Primary Schools for the Twenty First Century program, the evidence is mounting that Julia Gillard has too much on her plate to deal with these issues.

"Australia deserves better than a part-time education Minister,"" Mr Pyne said.