Belinda Nelson-McDowell has children at Bega Valley Public School, including one going to Bega High School next year.

“He needs the funding because he’s a special needs kid so without funding he won’t have one-on-one sessions,” she said on Wednesday. 

“If the funding isn’t continued I’ll have to go into school and sit with my son… because they won’t have enough staff.”

Bronwyn Luff, who has a son at Bega High, also spoke about her concerns for the needs-based funding system.

“If the Gonksi funding doesn’t come in there won’t be enough to support the Koori and non-Indigenous kids in the school,” she said.  

Bega High deputy principal Jenny Mace said Gonski funding has provided the school an Aboriginal education officer, a tutorial hub for kids to have one-on-one tuition, an Indigenous arts program and MultiLit programs. 

“If Gonksi is not continued a lot of our extra curricular activities won’t be able to be run due to the lack of funds,” Ms Mace said. 

On Wednesday, NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Gary Zadkovich travelled to Bega with a large sign about the Gonksi cuts. 

The sign stopped outside Bega High and Bega Valley Public to raise awareness of the federal government’s decision to cease funding the education program for its final years, when most of the funding was to be implemented. 

Mr Zadkovich said the Turnbull Government had “turned their backs” on funding the final two years of Gonski, a program that aimed to lift all schools to a national resource standard, both private and public.

He was asking residents to vote for candidates who support Gonski at the federal election – in Eden-Monaro Labor’s Mike Kelly and The Greens’ Tamara Ryan do, but the Liberals’ Peter Hendy does not. 

“We hope voters place the education of children as a higher priority than giving tax cuts to wealthy corporations,” Mr Zadkovich said. 

A ReachTEL survey of Eden-Monaro residents on June 21 found 56.1 per cent supported Gonski while only 17.3 per cent opposed it.