State Schools Under Pressure
Friday, April 11, 2003
Yes, state schools under pressure (Education Age, 3 Nov) have to deal with more of the difficult children – more with behaviour and learning problems, fewer from advantaged families. Professor Doherty is quoted as saying “ … I don’t understand why taxpayers are picking up some of the cost [of private schools].”
Those who advocate zero funding for non-state schools desire more equal opportunity for children, a sentiment shared by most Australians. But these would-be Robin Hoods need to think one step further. If you cut all funding to private schools, you entrench a greater-than-ever gulf between the haves and the have-nots.
Only the very advantaged would have any choice in schooling - and their schools would be far superior. The demographics of Australian schooling are more complicated than most people realise. We have rich Australians like Dick Smith who prefer state schools. We have some state schools in well-heeled suburbs that enjoy greater total income than many private schools.
We have some lower-income battlers making sacrifices to get their kids into private schools. But inevitably, because of the discriminatory funding system, the overall average income of private school family incomes is higher.
Want a more classless society? Want to enhance life opportunity through schooling? Want to relieve the ghetto effect of fully-funded state schools collecting all those who can’t pay, and as a result, an unfair share of the difficult children?
Yes, that’s easy. All we have to do to improve the social mix is to allow all families below the average income to choose any school they can afford - on the understanding that their school will receive the normal funding per state-school place for that child.
Many private schools would charge no top-up fee at all under these conditions. Our school is in this category. The worst part of my job is turning away enthusiastic families who can’t afford the fees.
No society on Earth ever has or ever will achieve total equality of outcomes. A safety net is essential - but it is not equality. The more we widen access to opportunity, the more just society we have.
Philip O'Carroll