pasCOEDucation

09/10/2026

Premier Carroll, there are just 27 days to go.

02/10/2026

🏫 COMPARE THE PAIR — AND NOW IT’S ELECTION TIME 🗳️

⏳ For 12 years, Pascoe Vale North Primary School has been waiting for meaningful State Government capital investment.

🏛️ The last time PVNPS received any love from the State Government was in the 2008–09 Budget.

🗣️ And let's not rewrite history when it comes to the 2009 Wills Forum… a forum that produced no funding and no actual changes for local schools. 🚫

🏚️ Since then, PVNP has had to make do with much smaller grants while its broader infrastructure needs remain.

🗳️ And now, with the 2026 Victorian State Election approaching, our local State Labor MP, Anthony Cianflone, is sponsoring a petition asking his own Labor Government to fund a covered outdoor learning area and new outdoor surface at PVNP. The petition has attracted more than 1,000 signatures. ✍️

🙄 After being largely ignored for the past four years, PVNP is suddenly getting some attention.

🤔 Which raises a rather awkward question:

❓ After 12 years of a Labor Government, why does the local member now need to petition his own Government to fund the local public school...election-time marketing?

💰 And when you compare that with the $1 million in State capital funding for a gymnasium at nearby St Oliver Plunkett's, the contrast becomes even harder to ignore.

🏫 St Oliver Plunkett’s is an important local school and provides a valuable educational choice for local families — but shouldn’t the State Government’s first priority be ensuring our public schools are properly funded and supported?

🏫 Same community.

🏛️ Same State Government.
⚖️ Very different priorities.

🗳️ It's election time.

🔥 COMPARE THE PAIR.

Victorian Socialists Angelica Panopoulos Ben Carroll MP Anthony Cianflone MP Kathleen Matthews-Ward MP Anasina Gray-Barberio MP

13/09/2026

🎯 SOMEHOW, THE 11-YEAR-OLD GETS IT.

👦 An 11-year-old student has managed to understand something that appears to have escaped our local elected politicians:

🏫 FULL FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ISN’T A BONUS.
💰 IT’S THE BARE MINIMUM.

📩 Thomas originally contacted his local MP, Anthony Cianflone, with a simple request: would he or the Labor Party make a donation to his school, Westbreen Primary, which is fundraising for much-needed learning equipment?

🎮 He was inspired to raise money partly because, well… there was a chance of winning a PS5.

💡 But somewhere along the way, Thomas did something far more valuable.

🧠 He started paying attention to politics.

📨 When the response arrived, it came with more than 20 links to Labor’s education campaigns and various Labor parliamentary stories, but no donation.

🎁 Instead, the school was offered a hamper.

🤔 Thomas’s response?

💬 Essentially: Thanks, but I asked for help funding education.

⬆️ And then he went one step further.

🗣️ “I’m only 11, but I don’t think this is a very complicated issue, our school needs full funding"

🤷 No. It really isn’t.

🏫 Public schools should not have to continually fundraise to provide students with the resources they need to learn.

💰 And saying you support public education isn’t the same as properly funding it.

📚 Thomas is growing up right in the middle of the North Merri-bek secondary school education debacle. He knows first-hand how important properly resourced public schools are, and he is already asking the questions many adults in the community have been asking for years.

👏 What makes us particularly proud is how he is learning to question politics rather than simply accept political talking points.

👀 He looks up to politicians, like David Pocock, and people like Punters Politics…people he sees asking questions, challenging governments and holding politicians accountable.

🗳️ That’s exactly the kind of political engagement we should be encouraging in the next generation.

🚫 Not followers.
🌟 Leaders.
🧠 People who think.
❓ People who question.
✊ People who stand up for others.

🎮 Thomas may have started this journey hoping to win a PS5.

💡 He might just end up learning something much more important:

🗳️ Democracy only works when people are prepared to ask politicians uncomfortable questions and keep asking until they get an answer.

❤️ We’re bloody proud of this kid.

👀 And perhaps our elected representatives should be paying attention.

🤔 Because if an 11-year-old can understand why public schools need proper funding, why can’t our elected officials?

💙💛 If you can give Thomas and Westbreen Primary School a helping hand in their fundraising endeavours, click on the link below or sponsor a Westbreen pupil that you know.

💰 Every dollar makes a big difference.

🙏 Please support Westbreen Primary and help give local kids the resources they deserve.

https://myprofilepage.com.au/campaign/6a810fbe171d871fcd0faf69/view

Victorian Socialists Angelica Panopoulos Ben Carroll MP Anthony Cianflone MP Kathleen Matthews-Ward MP Anasina Gray-Barberio MP

David Pocock Punter's Politics The Australia Institute Behind the News

11/09/2026

Aussie students’ reading and maths scores have hit their lowest point on record.

05/09/2026

In Victoria, for instance, the subject which scales the highest is Latin. But it’s only offered by a handful of schools, most of which cater to privileged families.

👉 Read the full story: https://theconversation.com/how-does-subject-scaling-work-for-year-12-and-why-is-it-unfair-289217

💬 Comment "newsletter" and we'll send you the link to sign up for our free wrap of the latest insight and analysis.

30/08/2026

✈️ Imagine if Melbourne Airport still operated with the runway it had in 1995.

🚗 Imagine if the Tullamarine Freeway never added another lane.

🚆 Imagine if Melbourne's population doubled but the train network stayed exactly the same.

❌ We'd call it a planning failure.

🏫 So why do we accept it for secondary schools in North Merri-bek?

🏛️ Decades ago, liberal governments closed several local high schools.

📈 The population kept growing.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Young families kept moving in.

🏘️ Entire neighbourhoods changed.

🏫 But the secondary school network never truly recovered.

🎓 Today, Year 6 isn't just the last year of primary school.

🏁 It's become a competition.

🗺️ Parents study zoning maps.

📝 They lodge appeals.

🚌 They plan bus routes.

🙏 They pray for special consideration.

😟 Kids barely twelve years old are worrying about whether they'll get into a school they actually want to attend.

🏫 Not because they don't believe in public education.

⚖️ Because too many have stopped believing they'll get a fair local option.

⚠️ That's the uncomfortable truth.

🔵 The Liberals created the hole.

🔴 Labor inherited it.

⏳ After more than a decade in government, and after holding Pascoe Vale for more than 40 years, that hole is still there.

📢 We've had announcements.

📝 We've had petitions.

📸 We've had glossy photos telling us what's been delivered.

🤔 But where is the long-term vision that actually changes the trajectory of secondary education in North Merri-bek?

❓ Because here's the question nobody seems willing to ask.

🏘️ If this was Brighton, Hawthorn or Balwyn, would this version of "good enough" have been accepted for 30 years?

👧👦 North Merri-bek isn't short of children.

👩‍🏫 It isn't short of teachers.

🌱 It isn't short of potential.

💭 It's short of political imagination.

🗳️ And maybe that's the real issue this election.

📱 Not who can squeeze in one more Facebook post before polling day.

📸 Not who can stand beside another sign promising they're listening.

🛑 But whether we're finally prepared to stop treating decades of educational drift as inevitable.

🚌 Because a generation of North Merri-bek kids has grown up travelling past the schools they wanted to attend.

❓ Tell me again the system is working.

🗳️ Maybe that's the question every voter should ask before they decide who deserves another four years.

19/08/2026

🚸The day Pascoe Vale started exporting its teenagers.🚸

❓Here's a question our politicians never seem to ask.

What happens to a community when its own kids stop going to school there?

🚞Every morning across North Merri-bek, hundreds of teenagers leave on buses, trains and in cars to build their school lives somewhere else.

🎒And they don't just take their school bags.

🚶🚶‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️They take their friendships. They join sporting clubs with schoolmates in other suburbs. They spend money near other schools after class. Their families build new networks elsewhere. Future volunteers, coaches, committee members and local leaders become connected to other communities instead of their own.

That's not just an education issue.

That's a community issue. An economic issue. A sporting issue. A long-term planning failure.

🥳Yet while this has been happening, we've become experts at celebrating announcements instead of solving problems.

Take the recent celebration of the teachers' agreement.📝

Teachers deserved a better deal. Absolutely.✅

🙄But let's not pretend it arrived because politicians suddenly found their conscience.

🥊Victorian teachers took unprecedented industrial action to force the issue. They had to fight for it.

And here's the uncomfortable part.

💰While politicians line up to celebrate supporting teachers, Victoria's public schools still aren't funded to the Gonski Schooling Resource Standard in the way many education advocates have long argued they should be.

📍It's easy to stand in Parliament and say, "We support teachers."

📍It's easy to say, "We support public schools."

🗣️The harder conversation is standing up and confronting what underfunding, delayed investment and poor planning mean for communities like North Merri-bek.

🤐That's where the silence becomes noticeable.

❓Because if you're prepared to celebrate the wins but reluctant to challenge the decisions that leave schools falling behind, who are you serving first, your community or your party?

📖And that's the story of Pascoe Vale's education debate.

For years we've had plans, petitions and ribbon-cuttings.

❌What we haven't had is a genuine long-term vision for Glenroy College, John Fawkner Secondary College and Pascoe Vale Girls College, a vision that asks what these schools should become, not simply how they survive.

❔Does that involve a connected education precinct.
❔A sporting school of excellence.
❔A STEM and technology school.
❔Stronger TAFE and apprenticeship pathways.

Schools with distinct strengths that work together instead of competing for shrinking enrolments.

❓Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. But for the sake of our children, isn't it time we found out?

The next election shouldn't be about which party can produce the best photo opportunity.

💥Every candidate, Labor, Liberal, Greens or Independent, should have to answer one simple question.

❓How will you stop North Merri-bek becoming a community that educates its children somewhere else?

Because when a suburb loses its young people every day, it doesn't just lose enrolments.

😢It loses part of its future.

Anthony Cianflone MP Angelica Panopoulos Victorian Socialists Liberal VictoriaBrad Rowswell MP Samantha Ratnam Jess Wilson MP Ben Carroll MP Victorian Greens

18/08/2026

Education state......

Melbourne High School is expected to shift the majority of classes into portable classrooms in 2027, following a meeting with school delegates and department officials on Friday, but fears that students and staff are unsafe in the dilapidated buildings until then continue to widen a longstanding rift between the school and the department.

Read the full story by Alex Crowe here: https://theageaustralia.com/4vWYOiQ

Photo: Joe Armao

12/08/2026

😡The Education State? It's time we stopped repeating the slogan and started looking at the evidence.

💔Across Victoria, the cracks are no longer metaphorical.

🏫Historic schools like Melbourne High are battling ageing buildings, failing infrastructure and defects so severe that students have faced the prospect of learning in portable classrooms or remotely. In Hawthorn, parents are petitioning for basic upgrades to crumbling buildings, unsafe playgrounds and 50-year-old toilets because decades of neglect have finally caught up.

🧑‍🏫Meanwhile, more than 35,000 teachers have walked off the job, saying they are underpaid, overworked and trying to educate children in one of the lowest-funded public school systems in the country. When the very people we trust with our children's future are telling us the system is breaking, perhaps it's time we listened.

🎀Yet here in North Merri-bek, we're still expected to applaud ribbon cuttings, media releases and carefully staged photo opportunities while families continue asking the same question:

❓Where is the plan?

❓Where is the long-term vision for Pascoe Vale, Glenroy, Coburg, Fawkner and the schools educating the next generation?

📝If this government truly valued the people of Pascoe Vale, our local MP wouldn't have to present community-led petitions to his own government just to get education on the agenda. Communities shouldn't have to campaign for safe classrooms, modern facilities or education plans to address a failing system. That is the government's job.

🤯A functioning toilet block isn't an election promise. It's a basic expectation.

😩A safe classroom isn't a luxury. It's a right.

🤦A quality local public school shouldn't depend on your postcode, your enrolment zone or how loudly your community can shout.

❌Victoria doesn't become the Education State because a slogan says so.

✅It becomes the Education State when every child, whether they’re in Melbourne High, Hawthorn, Pascoe Vale or Fawkner has access to a public school that is safe, properly funded, properly supported and built for the future.

Until then, “Education State” is just branding.

The students, teachers and families of North Merri-bek and communities right across Victoria deserve something far more valuable than another slogan, another announcement or another promise to wait a little longer.

They deserve action.

And with an election approaching, it’s time for the candidates seeking to represent Pascoe Vale to answer a very simple question:

❓What is your plan?

📍Not what has already been announced.
📍Not what the Government says it is doing.
📍Not another excuse about what is “in the pipeline.”

⁉️What will YOU do to change the trajectory of public secondary education in North Merri-bek?

📍What will you fight for?
📍What will you demand from your own party, or from a future government?
📍What specific commitments are you prepared to make to local families?

Because sitting back and waiting for things to change isn’t a plan.

And after years of the same problems, recycled announcements and communities being told change is coming, it quite frankly is no longer good enough.

Candidates for Pascoe Vale: we are asking you directly 💡what is your plan?

🗳️You want our vote.
🗣️Now tell us what you intend to do to earn it.

Victorian Socialists Angelica Panopoulos Anthony Cianflone MP Liberal Victoria Ben Carroll MP Brad Rowswell MP Samantha Ratnam Victorian Greens Gabrielle Williams MP

05/08/2026

National NAPLAN results show large numbers of children are still struggling with the basics of learning, despite a federal push to reshape how reading and maths are taught and tested.