School Ideologies
Herald Sun Friday, June 29, 2001
State school system operators constantly advocate reduced funding for rival schools. Their real motive is they don’t want to be exposed to parent choice and possibly lose market share. But the reason they regularly put forward for discriminatory funding is that only the state sector is free of “divisive” belief systems.
It’s high time this myth was debunked and dropped from the debate. Most people believe in something - always have, always will. And the state system minders are no exception. The union leaders, bureaucrats, and teacher-training academics who run state schooling form an ideological body far to the left of the population they serve.
It is no accident that state schools push left-wing agendas - girls, aborigines, environmentalism. These are worthy causes, but one-sided. The state school agenda does not support the society that supports it in other vital ways - such as boys, business, and mining.
No sector of schooling is value-free. But let’s not use taxpayer-funded schooling to prop up just one faction. Fund even-handedly and let parents democratically choose the school whose values they most support.
Philip O'Carroll