Conning The Punters
To The Australian and the Age Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I cannot get the following letter published - even though I have tried for many years. Is it because the journalists themselves do not understand the simple deceit that is being used? Are journalists themselves conned by the constant propaganda put out by the teachers' unions and state system controllers - implying that they are the true protectors of lower-income children? When will they realise that lower-income children will enjoy far more opportunity when their parents are at last allowed to choose freely amongst schools, given that most non-state schools in fact cost no more.
Talk about chronic propaganda. Every election year without fail, teacher union operators (like Pat Byrne, Australian March 20) set out to deceive the electorate about school funding. They say it is an injustice that the "federal" funding of non-state schools is higher than that of state schools.
But despite the morally wounded tone, this is in fact a cheap trick. State schools are always taxpayer-funded at a higher level. Most non-state schools operate on a tighter budget, even when you add in the fees they have to raise privately.
The faction that controls state schooling lobbies hard, conveniently omitting that "federal funding" is in-house jargon for a smaller top-up funding pipeline, which does go mostly to non-state schools. The big pipeline from the taxpayer is called "state funding" and is the lion's share.
Philip O'Carroll