pasCOEDucation

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.

27/07/2026

👨‍💼It's easy to demand accountability from your political opponents. The real test is whether you're prepared to demand it from your own side.

That's exactly the standard Anthony Cianflone MP asks Victorians to apply to the Liberals and One Nation.

Scroll through his page and you'll find post after post warning about cuts, privatisation and risks to Victoria's hospitals.

Holding governments to account is exactly what elected representatives should do.

But accountability only has credibility when it's applied equally.

When allegations emerged about criminal infiltration within sections of the CFMEU, serious questions were raised about procurement on Victoria's Big Build, and public confidence in government integrity was being tested, where was that same determination to demand answers from his own government?

Earlier this year, Anthony voted with the Allan Labor Government to reject legislation that would have immediately given IBAC "follow-the-money" powers to investigate taxpayer money flowing through contractors and subcontractors—powers IBAC itself had been calling for.

Only months later, after sustained public pressure and growing public scrutiny, the Government announced it would pursue similar reforms but at a much later date.

If stronger integrity laws were needed then, why weren't they needed when Parliament first had the chance to vote on them?

That is the real test of leadership.

Not how loudly you criticise your political opponents.

But whether you're willing to ask difficult questions of your own government.

Because integrity isn't selective.

It either matters.

Or it doesn't.

When your government gets something wrong, every elected representative faces a choice.

Stand up for the people who elected you.

Or stand with the party that endorsed you.

That decision says far more about leadership than any speech in Parliament or carefully crafted Facebook post.

Meanwhile, communities like Pascoe Vale continue to wait.

Our public schools need greater investment.

Families are still fighting for access to quality local secondary education.

People aren't asking for perfection.

They're asking for honesty.

They're asking for competence.

They're asking for representatives who put their community ahead of party politics.

Even respectful questions from members of the community deserve answers—not to be ignored, hidden or brushed aside.

Perhaps that's why so many Australians are losing faith in the major parties.

Too often they see politicians demanding accountability from everyone else, while applying a different standard when the questions are directed at their own side.

So to every candidate asking for Pascoe Vale's vote:
Angelica Panopoulos Victorian Socialists Socialist Alliance Liberal Victoria

👉Tell us what you'll fight for.

👉Tell us how you'll improve our local schools.

👉Tell us how you'll strengthen our health services.

👉Tell us how you'll restore integrity to government.

👉Tell us what you'll do when your own party gets it wrong.

Because representing Pascoe Vale isn't about wearing a party badge.

It's about having the courage to represent the people who sent you there.

Pascoe Vale deserves representatives who ask difficult questions—not politicians who only ask them of the opposition.

When Victorians vote this year, the question shouldn't simply be:

🤔"Which party?"
It should be:

🤷‍♂️"Who has earned the right to represent our community?"

Samantha Ratnam Anasina Gray-Barberio Evan Mulholland MP Brad Rowswell MP Oscar Yildiz JP

22/07/2026

The Australia Institute, which commissioned the poll, estimates the findings equate to more than 588,000 students who could instead be enrolled in the public system, lifting the share of children attending public schools from 63 per cent to 77 per cent – a level not seen since the 1980s.

The report suggests Australia’s public school funding shortfall is contributing to growing private school enrolments, despite the rising cost of private education.

“This polling shows a properly funded public school system could reverse decades of privatisation and save hundreds of thousands of parents from paying skyrocketing private school fees,” said Australia Institute researcher Skye Predavec.

Read the full piece on The Point: https://thepoint.com.au/new/260721-more-than-one-third-of-private-school-parents-would-have-chosen-public-schools-if-they-were-better-funded-poll-finds

22/07/2026

Victorian teachers and public school workers will walk off the job for the second time in four months on Thursday after rejecting the government’s latest pay and condi...

15/07/2026

📚 If Even Our Leaders Had to Leave, Why Has Nothing Changed?

🤔 What does it say about a community when the very people elected—and now seeking to be elected—to represent the local community also felt they needed to leave the local area to attend a public secondary school?

❓It's a question Pascoe Vale should be asking.

🏫 For decades, local families have faced difficult decisions about secondary education. Many still believe that, to give their children the opportunities they want, they need to look beyond the local area.

📖 What makes this so significant is that this isn't just today's reality.

👥 Our current Member for Pascoe Vale attended a public secondary school outside the immediate Pascoe Vale area he grew up in. The Greens' candidate for the upcoming election also attended a public secondary school outside the local area.

Different people. Different generations. The same story.

💭 If those now seeking to lead our community experienced firsthand the need to leave their local area for secondary education, shouldn't that experience have strengthened their determination to ensure future generations didn't have to make the same choice?

🚍 Instead, families are still leaving, still faced with the same decisions.

📉 For years, our local secondary schools have been under-invested, under-planned and overlooked. Enrolment patterns have consistently reflected declining community confidence. Parents have repeatedly called for long-term solutions, yet meaningful structural reform has remained absent.

📢 We're constantly reminded that Victoria is the "Education State." We see superficial announcements, strategies and media releases.

❌ But confidence isn't created through slogans or social media stories.

✅ Confidence is earned when families willingly choose their local public school because they know it offers outstanding facilities, strong academic pathways, broad extracurricular opportunities and a clear vision for success in the community it serves.

👏 This is not a criticism of our schools, their principals or their teachers. They work incredibly hard for their students and deserve communities that believe in them.

⚠️ The issue is that they have been asked to succeed within a system that has failed to give them the long-term investment, strategic planning and policy settings needed to thrive.

🗳️ That is a political choice.

⚖️ And political choices have consequences.

🏫 Today, families compete fiercely for places at schools such as Strathmore Secondary College and Coburg High School. Some make temporary moves into school zones simply to access the education they believe their children deserve.

🏗️ At the same time, three public secondary schools in North Merri-bek remain under-utilised because the conversation has too often centred on what governments want to build, rather than what the community wants its local schools to become.

🧱 New facilities have a place, but buildings alone do not change enrolment patterns or rebuild confidence.

🌱 Families need to see schools with a clear identity, high expectations, strong academic and vocational pathways, modern learning environments and a long-term vision that reflects the needs of North Merri-bek.

💡 Communities don't choose schools because they have the newest buildings.

❤️ They choose schools because they have confidence in what happens inside them.

❓The question is no longer why families continue to look elsewhere.

❗The real question is why successive governments have allowed this pattern to continue for so long.

🗳️ This state election, every candidate asking for the electorate of Pascoe Vale's vote should clearly explain how they intend to rebuild confidence in local public secondary education.

🚫 No more hiding behind an education plan that failed to address the underlying issues.

🚫 No more generic promises about "full funding for all public schools" (which should be a given) without explaining what that means for Pascoe Vale and North Merri-bek and our disjointed education landscape.

📋 Our community deserves specific commitments, measurable actions and genuine accountability.

🤝 If our local representatives once had to leave the area to access the education they wanted, they above all should understand why change is needed.

⏳ Now is the time to show that understanding through action.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Because if nothing changes, another generation of families will continue making the very same decisions.

🎓 Our children deserve better.

🏫 Our public schools deserve better.

💙 Our community should expect better from everyone asking for its vote.

✊ Real change only happens when voters are prepared to demand it.

Anthony Cianflone MP Kathleen Matthews-Ward MP Angelica Panopoulos Samantha Ratnam Oscar Yildiz JP Brad Rowswell MP Jess Wilson MP Victorian Socialists

08/07/2026

🏡 Imagine paying more than $1 million to buy a family home in Pascoe Vale.

💼 You work hard, pay your taxes, invest in your community and enrol your children in one of our excellent local primary schools.

🎒 Then your eldest is ready for secondary school.

🚧 That's when you discover the promise of public education depends less on your child's potential and more on which side of Kent Road your house happens to sit.

❌ Outside the Strathmore Secondary College zone? Too bad.

👦 Have sons? Pascoe Vale's local government secondary school is a girls' school, so that's not an option either.

🤷 So what are you left with?

🏫 Schools that have spent years battling declining enrolments, shrinking community confidence and a chronic lack of government ambition. Not because the students aren't capable. Not because the teachers aren't dedicated. But because political leaders allowed these schools to drift instead of giving families something worth choosing.

💰 So your choices become painfully simple:

➡️ Sell your home.
🎲 Gamble on an out-of-zone application.
💸 Or pay thousands every year for private education because the public system has failed to provide a genuine local alternative.

🤔 Think about how absurd that is.

🏠 A family can spend over $1 million to live in Pascoe Vale and still have no strong, accessible local public secondary school for all of their children.

⚠️ That isn't bad luck.

🗳️ That is the consequence of years of political decisions.

🎀 Governments love announcing shiny new projects and cutting ribbons. But the true measure of leadership isn't what gets built where votes are easiest to win—it's whether every community can access a high-quality local public school.

📍 For too long, Melbournes north has been asked to lower its expectations while governments celebrate plans instead of delivering outcomes.

📚 Families aren't asking for special treatment. They're asking for what every taxpayer should expect: a public education system where every local secondary school is well-resourced, well-led, aspirational and a school people actively choose—not one they're forced to accept because there are no better options.

🌟 The real injustice isn't that Strathmore Secondary College and Coburg High School are thriving—they should be. Every community deserves schools that families are proud to choose.

🚫 The injustice is that neighbouring schools have been left without the same vision, investment and opportunity to earn that same confidence, so families no longer see them as a genuine choice.

❗ That's not an accident.

⚖️ It's a political choice.

📢 And it's time our elected representatives were held accountable for it.

Anthony Cianflone MP Angelica Panopoulos Kathleen Matthews-Ward MP Victorian Socialists Samantha Ratnam Oscar Yildiz JP Jess Wilson MP Brad Rowswell MP Anasina Gray-Barberio