Government closes Schools in Western Growth Area
Thursday, 02 October 2008 08:56
Local residents who have been petitioning Education Minister Welford in relation to the need for a high school in the Karana Downs, Mount Crosby, Karalee area will be dismayed to see that the Government have actually decided to close more schools in the Ipswich area despite this area being the major designated growth corridor for South East Queensland.
The Government announced that it would be closing three schools and selling off the sites to fund the construction of one single school at Bremer.
Local residents understand the problems associated with not having a school locally and it seems an extraordinary decision that having decided that hundreds of thousands of additional residents should be put into the Ipswich area under the Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan that the Government would be reducing the number of schools.
It is not always the best outcome to have large schools instead of local schools.
Local residents understand only too well the difficulty of having your nearest Government school some 12 kilometres or more from local communities particularly given the struggling transport infrastructure in western Brisbane.
Whilst the Government claimed they will be building one “state of the art” school to replace three existing schools at the end of the day this is dressing up the closure of schools in a growth area to make it more palatable.
The Government needs to face up to the reality that its South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan does not contain planning for sufficient schools to meet the needs of one million extra residents and this shortfall is most acute in the western growth corridor. If there is one lesson that should have been learnt in Queensland it is that we need to plan to provide services and infrastructure in our growth areas in a timely fashion.
There is a clear need for a new school in the Karana Downs/Karalee area with thousands of high school age students currently lying outside the geographic catchment for Kenmore State High School.
A new school in the area would also provide an alternative to families in areas such as Bellbowrie/Moggill which would additionally relieve some of the pressure from Kenmore.
The Governments failure to recognise the serious need to provide an adequate number of schools and to provide schools within workable local proximity to large communities of families will be an ongoing issue in the local area I will continue to raise.
I have written to the Labor Member for Ipswich, Rachel Nolan, requesting that we discuss and if possible work together on obtaining the best educational infrastructure outcomes for all residents of the local area.
I believe the best outcome is likely to be achieved if there is co-operation However I am not encouraged by the lack of consultation on this latest school closure.