Since 2004 GPV/KCV has been campaigning for improvements in provision of education services to all children and young people. Since 2010 GPV/KCV has been particularly concerned about provision of education services to children and young people in out of home care and has campaigned for support for carers to keep children engaged in education and experiencing success at school.

GPV/KCV commends the report Let us Learn released by the Victorian Commissioner for Children and Young People in January 2024 and calls for the Victorian Government to respond to its recommendations as a matter of urgent significance to the wellbeing of Victoria’ children and young people and that the Victorian Government establish an open process for the implementation of its recommendations, including publication of an implementation timeline

Further, in order to defray the prohibitive costs of education, GPV/KCV calls for the urgent implementation of the following measures:

• The Victorian Government to increase the Carer Allowance and for the Department of Families Fairness and Housing (DFFH) to strengthen the Care Allowance assessment and payment processes to ensure assessments are conducted thoroughly and in a timely way, and that equitable financial support is provided
• The Victorian Department of Education ensure that carers of students in out-of-home care are not requested to pay voluntary financial contributions and education-related expenses, including camps and excursions.
• The DFFH to ensure carers and the children / young people in their care, are provided, early in the establishment of the, placement, with information about flexible funding available to cover education and extra-curricular activities and that the process for seeking this funding is streamlined.
• The Victorian Government provide all students in out-of-home care with free public transport via Victorian Student Travel Pass

GPV/KCV calls for support for the petition to have the HECS system fixed

Independent Member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan has sponsored a petition for all citizens to sign in support of all our young people.

Some facts from last year:
Over a million Australians saw their HECS debt grow faster than it was being repaid
The government received more money from HECS debts than it did from its main fossil fuel tax.

The petition calls on Minister Clare to change the way HECS debts are indexed – as was recommended by the Australian Universities Accord, released last month.

SIGN THE PETITION VIA THE LINK OR QR CODE BELOW
https://www.change.org/p/make-our-hecs-debts-easier-to-pay-off

Australian Universities Accord

Summary of final report into a review of Australia’s higher education system

To download a PDF of the report, click here

Who screwed millennials out of affordable education?

How did a system that was meant to make access to university more equitable end up burdening students with the very $100,000 degrees John Howard promised Australia would never have? Jane Lee and Matilda Boseley talk to the Labor-appointed architect of the higher education contribution scheme to understand why student fees were introduced, who benefited and how he wound up at a dinner party where guests were planning to burn an effigy … of him. In part three of Who screwed millennials? we hear from economist Prof Bruce Chapman, Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor, university historian Julia Horne, VicWise founder Manorani Guy and education report Caitlin Cassidy to trace the dozens of ideological changes over decades that transformed the nature of our university system.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/full-story/id1482061243?i=1000650370945

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd

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