Fund Students Not Sectors
Saturday, January 01, 2000
Rumour has it that more taxpayer's money is going to independent (or "private") schools than to state-run schools. In fact the funding granted per child to state-run schools is far above the funding for other children - no matter how poor they might be.
At the same time, most well-off families (on over $78,000 per year) get almost free schooling by sending their children to state-run schools. (ABS)
In other words, the system is not designed to protect disadvantaged children. It is designed to protect the state sector, in particular the unions and bureaucracies that feed off the state-schooling billions. (The teachers themselves are equally needed no matter who runs the schools.)
This state lobby group has conned much of the public into believing that somehow only the state system can service lower-income families. In fact they have trapped the lower-income children, and denied their parents the dignity of choice.
Historically, the state school system has played a heroic role in Australia - bringing literacy to the masses. Now that we have a literate population, and many teachers are capable of independently running top quality schooling, there is no longer a justification for locking children into state-run institutions.
Our educationally very successful independent school spends no more per child than the state-run schools do, but lower income families can't afford to come here. We have to charge fees because we are given less than our students's share of the schooling money - just because we are not state-run. (Mind you we are still regularly inspected and tested by the state.)
Anyone who believes in equalising educational opportunity would fund every child's schooling according to family means, and allow all parents to choose their child's school according to the child's needs and the family's values.
Philip O'Carroll