Overcrowding at Indooroopilly State High School is out of control because the State Government continues to underfund our public schools.
The government’s failure to plan properly has meant ISHS students have lost their science labs, student support rooms and play areas. And if it wasn’t for the P&C’s hard work and my advocacy, students would have lost their library too.
After years of campaigning, the local community has finally pushed the former Labor State Government into developing a masterplan for new buildings at ISHS. But so far there's been no commitment from the LNP Government to fund those plans. We need the Government to commit to fully funding the ISHS upgrades now!
Use this page to sign the petition asking for the Education Minister to commit to funding new buildings at ISHS. Please also share this page with your friends and neighbours to turn up the pressure!
Background
We’ve achieved some incredible wins in our advocacy against school overcrowding. We got a commitment to a new primary school, a big new administration and classroom building for Indooroopilly SS, land acquired next to Ironside SS and more. But it’s clear that high school overcrowding is an ongoing issue in the inner-west, and it’s time for the government to step up.
In December 2023 this came to a head when we learnt that ISHS students could lose their library, instrumental music rooms, storage sheds and more to accommodate 2024 enrollments. After pushback from our community and the Greens, the former Education Minister agreed to our call to urgently step in and provide temporary classrooms. Just over a week later, demountables were being installed on the ISHS oval - an important but temporary win.
But demountables aren’t the solution. We’ve needed new buildings at ISHS for years and I long told the former Minister that unless the government stepped up, this is what was going to happen. After years of advocacy by me and our ISHS community, the former state government put together a masterplan for new buildings. While this is promising, we learnt in June 2024 that the former Government hadn’t allocated any funding for new buildings - despite the Department saying they’d at least seek design funding in 2024.
Disappointingly but not surprisingly, since the change of Government, we haven't seen the LNP come to the table with any proposed solutions to school overcrowding. They made no commitments at the election to fund new buildings and have made no commitments since coming into Government.
We need funding locked in at the 24/25 budget, so new buildings can be constructed as soon as possible. That’s why I’m calling on the Government to commit to funding all four stages of the new Master Plan in the upcoming budget- can you join me?