Editing Jeff Kennett (section)

====State school closures====
In the first three years of office, funding for public schools and the Department of Education was substantially reduced. 350 government schools were closed, including every Technical High School ("Tech") in Victoria, and 7,000 teaching jobs eliminated.<ref>[http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000000771.htm STRUGGLE FOR A NEW PUBLIC DEMOCRACY School, Community and the State] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917052054/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000000771.htm |date=17 September 2013 }}, by Tony Knight. Northland Secondary College era 1992 – 1996.</ref> The Tech School closures had a widespread, delayed effect two decades later when a skilled labour shortage in the state was declared by the government, attributable largely to the generation of children who were denied a trade-focused high school education, significantly reducing the number of school leavers commencing trade apprenticeships. The few who did so were insufficient to counterbalance the number of retiring tradespeople in the coming years. This directly resulted in the number of Skilled Migrant (subclass 190) visas being made available each year increasing to 190,000 from 2012<ref>{{cite web | url=https://australmigrate.com/subclass-190-explained/ | title=Australia's Visa Subclass 190 (State Nominated) – Explained! | date=20 July 2019 | access-date=23 November 2022 | archive-date=23 November 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123175149/https://australmigrate.com/subclass-190-explained/ | url-status=live }}</ref> and an active campaign to entice migrants with trade qualifications to Victoria.