These parents say their crumbling state school isn't being fixed because of who they vote for
A group of Melbourne parents say their bayside state primary school is crumbling into disrepair and being neglected by the Victorian government because it sits in an affluent Liberal-held electorate.
The long-running maintenance issues at the 150-year-old Brighton Primary School came to a head this year when the floors in four classrooms and a student bathroom had to be ripped out after being eaten by termites.
The school's 500-plus students are learning in 50-year-old demountable classrooms just metres away from a busy train line, collapsing brick walls are creating no-go zones and the campus has been refused grant funding to replace its 30-year-old playground for three years running.
The school council says parents believe the school is being overlooked by the state Labor government because it is in an affluent suburb and a Liberal political stronghold. The party's local state MP described the situation as 'reprehensible'.
The Victorian Schools Building Authority (VSBA) said it responded promptly to maintenance issues at Brighton Primary and that it was supporting the school to ensure student and staff safety.
But school council president Aaron Stead said maintenance has been underfunded for decades, despite it being one of just four government schools in metropolitan Melbourne to offer specialist teaching to deaf children.
'Where the school has really struggled for the last few decades in getting any funding from the government is capital infrastructure,' Stead said.
'We've got 14 demountables or portables that are up to 50 years old, they're in various states of disrepair, they're under-sized for current learning standards, the number of students you can get into them is not what's recommended by the state government.'
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