Government Takeover of Independent Schools
Victorian Parents Council Newsletter Friday, August 15, 2003
Dear Editor,
The Victorian Department of Education & Training (DET) is attempting a takeover of non-government schools (NGSs). The Registered Schools Board (RSB) is the agency of DET created specially to deal with non-government schools. The RSB considers applications from people who wish to start up a new school. If they approve the new school, they register the school thus the name. Every six years, a registered school is subject to a review by the RSB (what used to be called an inspection). In Victoria, roughly two-thirds of registered schools are Catholic. The remainder includes some smaller systems and many independent schools.
In late July, DET announced a review of the RSB itself. DET has published a Consultation Paper, canvassing several changes to the operation of the RSB. (This document can be read on the RSB website www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/rsb) This includes many proposals to increase DET control over registered schools. It is seen by some school principals as a serious threat to diversity and choice.
It is hardly a secret that our school industry is not perfect. After all, schooling so dominates the formative years of our population, that it must take some of the blame for problems of our society, particularly the growing mental and emotional problems of our youth. There is an obvious need for innovation in schooling. It is to be hoped that through diversity, we can find better ways, and evolve an education system that meets twenty-first century needs. This is a strong argument against the greater enforcement of state-system norms that are proposed in the review.
There is a constant undercurrent throughout the proposals that a better quality of schooling would be produced by greater government control. Registered schools are exposed directly to parent choice. It may indeed be argued on the contrary that the supreme form of accountability is a parent's right to choose. A fairer funding system would enhance the standard of education delivery across the board, but we are not allowed to discuss funding in relation to this review!
The ultimate moral issue exposed by this power struggle is the primacy of the family over the state in deciding how their children shall be educated. In a democracy, the mere fact that the government collects $26b in taxes for schooling, does not entail that only government officers know best how to spend this portion of the people's money.
Some school operators feel that there is already an unhealthy clash of motives involved in DET, the largest operator of schools, registering and reviewing its competitors. There has been a drift from DET schools over several years. Perhaps it is naive to expect such a large corporation not to try to arrest this continuing loss of market share by using its monitoring powers to squash diversity. Perhaps non-government schools should have their own inspectors, experienced educators from their own sector.
There is talk of not allowing small schools, of requiring proof of business acumen in teachers who are starting new schools, of controlling school improvements, of umpiring debates between parents and teachers, of imposing DEET teaching methods and lots more red tape.
Perhaps the grossest denial of citizens' rights in a free country is proposed in a euphemism called Planned Education Provision. This is to prevent the opening of a new school on the grounds that parents may prefer it to existing schools! This is business protection, pure and simple, and would slam another door on the authority of the family and our hopes for evolution of new ideas in schooling.
Also see: Registered Schools Board Review, including Philip's OPEN SUBMISSION to the RSB REVIEW and SOME KEY POPINTS recorded by Philip after the public hearings (both of these documents were sent to all independent schools).
Philip O'Carroll