Coalition promises free text books for public secondary school students if elected in November
PARENTS with children at public high schools would save almost $3000 in textbook costs if the Victorian Coalition wins the November election.
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PARENTS of state high school students will save almost $3000 in textbook costs under a state opposition plan to ease financial stress on families.
In a major cost of living pledge, Opposition leader Matthew Guy will today unveil funding for public secondary schools to provide textbooks for all students.
Mr Guy told the Sunday Herald Sun the Free School Books scheme would save parents an average of about $476 a year per student, or $2856 over the child’s secondary school life.
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The $115 million scheme would be rolled out from 2020.
Mr Guy said giving students textbooks would ease the financial squeeze on parents.
“Most families do it a little tougher after Christmas and at the start of the school year with all the added expenses,” he said.
“A good education is also the key to hope and opportunity for schoolchildren which is why making it easier for families to freely obtain the required textbooks is so important.”
The policy will be a key plank of the Coalition’s pitch to voters struggling with rising bills as it seeks to topple the Andrews Labor Government at the November 24 election.
A political battle over the cost of living has been brewing all year, with the Sunday Herald Sun revealing Labor’s policy to give households $50 if they visited an energy comparison website, and to dish out solar panel subsidies if re-elected.
Mr Guy said there had been 12 new or increased taxes under the Andrews Government and energy bills had risen by $300 since the closure of the Hazelwood power station.
He said parents with two children at secondary school would save almost $1000 a year under the Free School Books plan, allowing parents to “get back in control of cost of living pressures”.
The Department of Education would start working with schools to implement the scheme within 100 days of the election to “ensure value for money and choice”.
Schools would buy textbooks and hand them directly to students, who would have to return them in good condition at the end of the semester or school year.
Books would be updated about every four years and there would be no means test or cap attached to the plan.
At the moment, most parents are given a list of materials needed for their child’s subjects, and can place orders over the summer holidays.
Families with tight budgets often search second-hand book stores, with some of the more expensive books costing at least $80 new.
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A 2017 Salvation Army social impact survey found that half of struggling parents said they could not afford up-to-date school books and clothes.
Although public schools are considered “free”, the Australian Scholarships Group recently found parents end up paying about $4455 a year on average in extra-curricular activities, clothing, books and computers.
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