PUBLIC education has caused heated debate between Bendigo politicians.
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The issue arose during a Bendigo Business Council event during which sitting Labor members and Liberal and Greens candidates for the seats of Bendigo East and West were given three minutes to pitch their vision for their electorate.
The candidates spoke about issues such as better transport, education, youth unemployment, economic growth and manufacturing.
However it was the issue of public education that stirred the most emotion.
Speaking first, Greens candidate John Brownstein said it seemed the state government was on an "ideological crusade to rip apart public education".
Mr Brownstein said he read the auditor general's report which stated TAFEs in Victoria had gone from a surplus of $56 million to a deficit of $16 million.
Mr Brownstein said, in Bendigo, 39 courses were disbanded and there was a 15 per cent reduction in TAFE enrolments across the Loddon Mallee region.
"They can't be dismissed, these figures," he said.
Liberal candidate for Bendigo West Michael Langdon responded to Mr Brownstein saying the Coalition had built up the education sector by spending 50 per cent more on vocational education and training than was spent by the previous Labor government.
He said Labor spending on VET was at $800 million and under the coalition it had been doubled to $1.2 billion.
He also said the dire situation for the Victorian TAFE system was because of privatisation introduced under Labor.
"Jacinta Allan was the minister responsible for TAFE," Mr Langdon said.
"Bendigo TAFE suffered as a result of the Labor government's change in policies to allow private providers in."
He said the Coalition had provided $64 million more to allow the Bendigo Kangan merger to take place.
Labor MP for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan said Mr Langdon's comments were untrue and showed he did not understand the issue.
"It's just not true. There has been no privatisation of TAFE. It's very clear that the Bendigo Liberals either don't understand or want to mislead the community," Ms Allan said.
Ms Allan said the changes Labor made when last in government were to open up government funding to a broader range of education providers and attach funding to the number of enrolments.
"I get pretty agitated about this is because it's a very important distinction," she said.
"The only time TAFEs have lost money was when this government cut $1.2 billion out of the system," she said.