AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENSE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS - D.O.G.S.

PRESS RELEASE 104#.

 VICTORIAN ALP PLANS TO DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION IN VICTORIA

There is never a good time for a bad idea!

According to the News Reports ( The Age 11 February 2005) after Lynn Kosky announced the Review of Education and Training Legislation it was announced that

"The 133 year old tradition of Free and Secular public Education could be ditched in a radical plan to rewrite Victorian Education Laws."

According to the Press, the State Government has thrown open for public debate the guiding principles of education in Victoria as it prepares to rewrite the Education Act of 1872.

Ominously, it is alleged by Shane Green and David Rood in the Age that it was welcomed by Principal, Teacher, Parent, and private school groups as an opportunity to shape and debate education in Victoria.

Unfortunately, to date, the Victorian public school bodies, whether they are parent,  teacher or principal groups, do not appear to have the intestinal fortitude to stop the integration and privatization of public education by stealth - or is it by their own default? The persons in leadership positions -DOGS do not regard them as "leaders' when it comes to fighting for the public education system - are pitiful compared with their religious counterparts when they are fighting for their system.

The tragedy is made worse by the private school interests within the public school administration - and who are instrumental in the current attempt to overturn the time honoured principles of a public system. The Minister for Education herself, Lynn Kosky should resign in disgrace for even permitting the paper to leave her office. She should be looking very carefully at the affiliation of those who are behind it.

Mr Bracks and Mr Brumby, together with their bean counters in the Treasurer and Education Department should be confronted by those who are heartily sick of their reactionary, unrealistic, private/public partnership New Right Ideology. It has failed miserably overseas and yet they still insist on imposing it upon the taxpaying citizens of Victoria.

The overarching tragedy of course, those most at risk, will be the children of Victoria whose opportunities for a free, secular, and universal education - one accessible to all children- is up for grabs.

The citizens of Victoria cannot look to the Press or the Academics for any valuable assistance in this matter.

 As a start, the timelines for submissions - April 30 2005 should be rejected and the paper pulped. There is nothing about public education and its time honoured principles in the paper. It is a mish mash of the promotion of parental choice and minimal accountability for actual public funding with all the usual private school ideology.

There is absolutely no mention of the right of a child to a free education without religious, racial, or economic tests.

There is no way that supporters of public education can do the job of response to the paper within the time lines.

THIS IS A  BRACK'S GOVERNMENT TOKEN CONSULTATION AND PREPARATION FOR A  REACTIONARY PIECE OF LEGISLATION TAKING VICTORIA BACK INTO UNTRAMMELLED PRIVATIZATION?

P.S. the DOGS HAS EXPERIENCED THIS ATTACK ON PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE FORM OF THE GREEN PAPER IN THE 1970S, TAKING SCHOOLS INTO THE 1990S IN THE 1980S AND SCHOOLS OF THE THIRD MILLENIUM IN THE 1990S. AT EVERY POINT THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BUREAUCRACY HAS BEEN FURTHER UNDERMINED AND TAKEN OVER BY PRIVATE SCHOOL INTERESTS. NOW, VICTORIANS ARE LOOKING AT THE FINAL, LEGISLATIVE DEMOLITION OF OUR PUBLIC SYSTEM.

TO FIGHT THE ABOVE, THE DOGS WILL SET UP A SEPARATE WEBSITE.

WATCH OUT LINKS PAGE.