The 'rebel educator' candidates taking on Labor

A group of teachers and education support staff - members of Victorian Socialists who, as part of the Socialists in Schools union group, have played a leading role in the rank-and-file rebellion within the AEU - will be running a targeted campaign in this November’s state election challenging eight sitting Labor MPs, including Premier and former Minister for Education Ben Carroll.

Labor is responsible for the crisis in public education

The Labor Party has governed almost continuously for more than two decades. Yet Victoria has the lowest funded public schools in the country. The government has stolen $16 billion from our system through underfunding in the last seven years alone. Surging workloads, wage suppression and increasing class sizes have created a situation where less than a third of teachers plan to stay in the sector long-term.

We deserve better than having to choose between a Labor government which lowballs teachers and underfunds education, and a Liberal-One Nation opposition which despises workers and will impose further public sector cuts.

Educators are taking their fight for a better public school system to parliament

Socialists think that the teachers and education support staff who make the education sector work and understand what it needs should run the school system. That’s why teachers who have helped lead the recent rank-and-file rebellions against the Department of Education and the leadership of the AEU are setting their sights on parliament.

The formerly safe seat of Niddrie, currently held by recently-anointed Premier, and former Minister for Education Ben Carroll, will be contested by ‘rebel educator’ Brendan Laws. Brendan is an organiser of the Socialists in Schools rank-and-file group, known for playing a large role in twice defeating Carroll’s inadequate offers to school staff.

In addition to Brendan Laws, the ‘rebel educators’ group running with Victorian Socialists includes school maintenance staff member and noted muralist Van Thanh Rudd for Laverton; and Omar Hassan for the Northern Metropolitan upper house region - a leading figure in the Palestine solidarity movement and casual relief teacher.

Other ‘rebel teacher’ candidates include:

• Courtney Millet for Kalkallo
• Chris Dite for Richmond
• Adam Bremner for Sunbury
• Leah Van Keulen for Tarneit
• Reem Yunis for Cranbourne

The teachers are calling to:

• End public funding for high-fee private schools.
• Abolish NAPLAN.
• Immediately implement the 2026 AEU log of claims.
• Return $16 billion stolen from Victorian schools since 2019 in the 2027 budget.
• End all "voluntary" parent contributions.
• Implement a class size cap of 15 by 2030. Immediately begin staff attraction and training process.
• Give school staff and community members curriculum control.

Join our campaign today and support our rebel teacher candidates.