Deceitful Lobbying
Thursday, January 22, 2004
The public is being tricked into thinking that private school places get more than taxpayers' money than state school places. Many prominent Labor figures have recently quoted the fact that more "federal government money" goes to private schools. This statement is intended to deceive. The public is not being told that most school funding is distributed by state governments. So much more in fact that absolutely every state school child is more highly funded than any other child.
Readers, listeners and viewers are feeling understandably indignant, but they are being made fools of. Even professional journalists are falling for it. One concludes, "it's little wonder [so many] attend private schools [given that] Government continues to discriminate against funding private schools..." The truth is quite the other way around. Funding discriminates in favour of state schools, and 32% of the population go elsewhere in spite of the financial penalty.
Philip O'Carroll