29 May 2008

The Hon Peter Garrett AM
Federal Member for Kingsford Smith
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts

Peter Garrett today celebrated with Rainbow Street Public School the opening of projects to provide covered walkways and rubberised surfaces under playground equipment at the school.

Rainbow Street Public School in Randwick received $87,472 under the Investing in Our Schools Program. This funding has improved access to all areas of the school as a result of the construction of covered walkways, which is especially important for students who suffer from physical disabilities such as vision impairment. Activities that develop improved motor skills are important for educational development, especially for students with disabilities. The safety and confidence of all students is improved by the rubber surfacing under the play equipment.

The school has also been successful receiving funding in Round 2 of the Program, and a further $19,320 has been approved for the installation of water tanks.

Successful applications for all four rounds total 20,241 approved projects for approximately 8739 government schools across Australia.

Government school communities were able to apply for funding for such projects as air-conditioning, shade structures, computer equipment and upgrades, musical and sporting equipment.

The Rudd Government is committed to school infrastructure funding, providing over $546.6 million during 2008 to the state and territory governments and school sectors. This funding will assist schools, particularly through the Capital Grants Program, which helps the most needy schools construct and upgrade their school facilities.

The initiatives of Rudd Government’s Education Revolution include:

• The Trade Training Centres in Schools program will provide $2.5 billion over 10 years to enable secondary schools across Australia to apply for funding of between $500,000 and $1.5 million for Trade Training Centres.
• The Government will invest $1 billion over four years in the Digital Education Revolution to improve secondary school students' access to ICT and equip them for the jobs of the future.
• The Local Schools Working Together initiative will provide $62.5 million over four years to construct shared facilities between government and non-government schools to support the construction of approximately 25 shared school facilities between government and non-government schools, such as classrooms, music and performing arts centres, sporting fields, computer and science laboratories, specialist language facilities, libraries and assembly halls.

The Rudd Government will also be assisting Australian families who receive Family Tax Benefit Part A to help meet the costs of educating their children by providing a 50 percent Education Tax Rebate for eligible education expenses (computers, Internet connection, text books and educational materials). This will mean:

• The maximum refund for each child attending primary school will be $375 per child, per year; and
• The maximum refund for each child attending secondary school will be $750 per child, per year).