Whose "Expert"?
Saturday, January 01, 2000
Professor Gerald Burke was presented on a 3LO panel (22/11/2000) as an expert on education economics. Disapproving of the Kemp school funding scheme, he emphasised the government’s duty to fund the poor and expressed concern about the increasing wealth gap in our society.
Noble sentiments, but he only wanted to reduce funding for private school families. He never mentioned the fact that the most financially favoured people in the entire school industry are the higher-income families who receive full funding in state schools.
So it seems he’s not really working for equity, he’s working for business protection of the state system. A true socialist would go for funding that was inversely proportional to family income – which is just what the Kemp scheme provides, at least in the non-government sector.
If government statistics demonstrate that average incomes in private schools are less than popular myth implied, get used to it. The “top” 51 private schools only get a miserable 2.3% of the schooling money anyway – let’s not waste the whole debate on them.
Philip O'Carroll