Wyndham council has backed Tarneit MP Telmo Languiller-Tornesi’s call for the state government to honour its pledge of boosting education.
Mr Languiller-Tornesi last week announced that LAW Architects will design the new primary school at Tarneit West announced in this year’s state budget.
The 2016-15 budget allocated $13 million to build the school, which is expected to open in time for the first term of 2018.
“The government is building the education state, which means investing in growing areas like Tarneit so our kids have access to the facilities they need to thrive,” Mr Languiller said.
But the council’s director of advocacy, Bill Forrest, says more needs to be done to meet the region’s education demands.
“With the rate of residential development occurring in Wyndham, a new primary school needs to be built every year and a new secondary college every three to four years,” Mr Forrest said.
“Wyndham welcomes the announcement that the state government has committed funds to secure land for the Davis Creek Primary School in Tarneit West, another in Sanctuary Lakes South and a secondary college in Point Cook.
“[But] we want to see a pipeline of funding to construct these schools. Currently, there is no commitment in the four-year outlook in the state budget.”
Mr Forrest said the council had identified a possible partial solution to schools funding by drawing on developer contributions collected by the state government on big projects.
“We will continue to advocate to both the state and federal government, including our commitment to campaigns such as Fund our Future and Get Wyndham Moving, to deliver the services and infrastructure our residents need,” Mr Forrest said.
A recent analysis by the Grattan Institute found that more than 1000 new classrooms are needed to cater for the projected 66 per cent growth in student numbers over the next decade across Wyndham.
