When Rudd and Gillard refuse to admit the historical distinction  between public as opposed to private schools; when they bury funding and accountability issues and blame under-resourced public schools for failure  of performance tests; when they blame the victims instead of taking responsibility for public provision, are they preparing us for the selling off of our public schools to the private sector?

If there is no difference between public and private at what point will they force public to become private?

Rudd and Gillard follow in Howard's footsteps.

Under the rule of John Howard, the Conservatives financed, approved and promoted a victor's view of educational history. The church schools could only be the winners. For him, the sooner public education, and separation of church and state with  their proud history  was buried, the better. The real lessons of State Aid to Church schools and the cancerous nature of the church school faction in our body politic, not to  mention the importance of public education were never really presented.

For a deeper understanding of what did not appear, we suggest you view our website and view in particular News Release 140 at www.adogs.info/pr140.htm ; Press Release 130 at www.adogs.info/pr130.htm , and Press Release 217 at www.adogs.info/pr217.htm. These Press Releases deal specifically with the official  History of State Aid to Church Schools in Australia,  a project funded by the Howard government.

In opposition  Rudd and Smith did their best to bury the question of State Aid alongside the crucial difference between public and private schools. ( See Press Release 202 at www.adogs.info/pr202.htm

and Press Release 229 at www.adogs.info/pr229.htm along with Press Releases referred to in Press Release 229.)

Rudd and Gillard in Government

In government Rudd and Gillard are still attempting to wipe out the issue of public v private in school education.

Kevin Rudd:

In his election victory speech Kevin Rudd declared that he wanted to put aside...the old battles between public and private...!( See Press Release 232 at www.adogs.info/pr232.htm ) From that moment Kevin Rudd has decreed that no-one should even discuss the difference between public and private education and the lessons we can learn from the stupidity of State Aid and the private school system. He has decreed that a large section of Australian history be blotted out. He demands that we no longer acknowledge the very existence of the last forty years of  the State Aid funding scandals as well as almost two hundred years of educational history.

On 27 August 2008 he continued to erase our history from view. In his national Press club speech he declared that:

In the area of schools it is time to move beyond our outdated divisions between Commonwealth and State responsibility and between public and private provision.

Ón the following day he further declared:

The unions to get on board or risk being left in the past. It's time to arrive in the 21st century...Let's get past the name calling. Let's get past all the pointless debate about blaming someone here or someone there and let's get on with the business.

The attempt to bury the public/private debate by Rudd and Smith has been taken up with the utmost energy by Julia Gillard. In her very first act as the Minister of the Crown she was at it.

Julia Gillard's Effort to Bury the State Aid Issue and the Public/Private Education Debate

• An Address to  the Australian Industry Group on December 3, 2007. 

Julia Gillard declared: I am going to be ignoring the old battles between....public and private schools...

• Address to the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Independent Schools, Sydney NSW 22 May 2008.

 Julia Gillard declared :

I believe it is time we got beyond the public v private divide that has blighted our education debates for so long...to build community support for a nation building project that can finally put the public v private behind us.

•  John Button Memorial Lecture 18 July 2008 entitled 'Politics and Integrity - Delivering an Education Revolution

Julia Gillard declared:

In Australia over many decades the focus of the schooling debate has been the competitive relationship between government and non-government schools. We have an historic opportunity to overcome this public/private divide. But we will not succeed in taking that opportunity if we only use the tools of reform drawn from the past. And that presents a challenge to all of us, including the Australian Labor Party and its traditional supporters... The debate we need to be having is not a sterile debate about public v private. Instead it should be the rich new debate, a debate in which we wrestle with and resolve the question of how to measure needs of the children in each school and each community across this country.

 'Rich new debate?" or "New debate for the needy Rich?"

DOGS refer her to John Button and his mates. At least they were honest about what the Needs policy was really about.

Forget the Needs of poor children, so long as the greedy church schools are happy.

In September 1977, when Julia Gilllard was still at school, John Button and his fellow Senators declared the following:

Senator John Button said on 14 September 1977:

The philosophical assumptions which underlay the establishment of the Karmel Committee and the establishment of the Schools Commission were the priorities of needs and the concern to get rid of the debate in Australia over the funding of non-government schools.

Senator Wreidt  ALP Shadow Minister for Education said 8 September 1977:

The Labor government established the Schools Commission for two basic reasons: The first was that it would take out this running argument....the so-called State Aid argument.

Senator Susan Ryan, later a Minister of Education and the past Secretary of ACSSO confirmed this six days later on 14 September 1977 :

The whole purpose of the Needs based approach to the funding of education in Australia instituted under the Labor Government was to remove that sectarian division.

Gillard must think Australian citizens live in cuckoo land. The "needs" of children were supposed to be addressed long ago and the politicians and their churchmen mates have made the division between rich and poor wider than ever. Why? Because the Needs policy was and is a sick joke. It spawned bottom of the schoolyard schemes  and was rorted by the church schools. It made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And as soon as the top is lifted off the accountability rubbish tin by public school supporters, the diversionary tactics commence.

The Howard 'Needs' policy espoused by the Rudd Government is worse than a sick joke and is being imposed on the Australian taxpayers until 2012. So where is the Rudd Education Revolution? Or is Rudd declaring that 'revolution' means 'no change' and 'public' really means ' private'?

Or is the long term plan even more sinister? Does "Revolution' mean ' privatisation of the public system?'

Julia Gillard's Opinion Piece in the Age on 18 July 2008, entitled Education Debate must not be about Public Versus Private was merely a reflection of the  John Button memorial speech to his friends from the Fabian Society. Of all the Headings for her speech that could have been chosen, the message sent out to the readership of The Age was this: the old divisions do not exist b ecause those in power tell us so.

ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) Conference 11 August 2008.

Once again Gillard tried to bury the State Aid debate. She said:

For over a decade, debates about knowledge and skills in Australia have been based on the opposite of evidence: prejudice. As a result, public schools have been pitted against private schools; parents against teachers; apprenticeships against bachelor degrees; and humanities against the technical disciplines. The Rudd government was elected with a mandate to end that approach with a new emphasis on evidence based reform.

ABC Lateline 28 August 2008

On this evening the TV interviewer conducted an interview with Julia Gillard on the Education Revolution and Kevin Rudd's National Press Club speech. Here are some of her responses:

I say to the Australian Education Union, it is fighting yesterday's battles. We aren't on about school systems. We are on about the performance and quality of every school because we want every Australian child to get the best possible education....

Can I say once again to the Australian Education Union and to everybody else, we have left the debates of public versus private behind us. They are yesterday's debates. We want to make sure every school, whether it is a State school, whether it's an independent school, whether it's a Catholic school, is able to offer a great education and we want to address educational disadvantage wherever we find it... I will leave the debates of the past about systems against each other to the Australian Education Union. That is about yesterday. We are about tomorrow and building an education revolution for this nation's long term future...They (the Coalition) embarked on a decade of division...They ( the Coalition) are about yesterday's debates of private versus public.

Address to Independent Schools Council of Australia 1 September 2008

Julia Gillard continued the mantra for the favoured schools:

For too long the debate about schools was diverted into unproductive avenues. public schools were pitted against private, traditional curriculum was pitted against new; and academic ends were pitted against technical. That era is over. The true target of our efforts must be individual students no matter which type of school they attend. The commonwealth has embarked on a new direction. ...in all these areas, we are moving beyond the traditional and discredited focus of schooling debate in Australia; the debate that revolved around competition between sectors and failed to focus on the realities of need and outcomes across all sectors...we have left that time of divisive politics and policy inertia behind us. The Rudd government is committed to transparency so we can make a difference with new resources supporting a new approach to quality schooling for all Australian children.... the old divisions between systems and between National and State jurisdictions have lost their relevance....The independent sector has led the way in so many of these areas and we want to work with you to keep your standards high and lend your insights to improve the chances of all children in all schools across all sectors.

DOGS note that  the major leadership exhibited by the so-called independent sector is in lobbying for ever increased taxpayer funding for children of parents who can afford the education offered by the private sector.
It is certainly time that the public sector learnt a lesson from them on lobbying.

 Apprehensive Private School Leader Joins Gillard's Chorus

Less than two hours after Gillard's address to the Independent Schools Council of Australia Bill Daniels, the Executive Director of the ISCA agreed, but was a a bit more hesitant than Julia Gillard.  He said:

Public versus private is no longer an issue- or at least the Prime Minister and the deputy Prime Minister would like to see this divisive issue fade away. ...if the public/private debate is to be buried, this Review ( Review of School Funding Policy 2010 and 2011) provides the government with an opportunity to shift the focus off one sector and demonstrate that it is serious about the rhetoric on moving forward and leaving the past in the past. Funding is a serious business...

We no longer have to be drawn into debates about class or social warfare to justify our existence. The din of old sector warriors wishing to continue this obsolete debate is distractive, but in truth our sector has to consider other school sectors as partners. The other sectors contribute to same diversity and choice for school provision that remains a central tenet for us. And it is important for us to respect their difference as well as their contribution.

So Mr Daniels is trying to tell us that the debate will not be buried unless the private sector get what they want. If Julia Gillard wishes to end the debate, then Daniels indicates that she should follow his instructions about the funding review....After all, funding is a serious business!

Comment: It is very true that funding is a serious business, and Mr Daniels is practicing leadership in lobbying once again - with a bit of patronising partnership talk about the other sectors on the side ! How can the lamb be a partner to the tiger?

The  taxpayer is left wondering about who is writing Julia Gillard's educational policy.

 Rudd / Gillard Ignorance of History Exacerbated by Ignorant Advisers

Gillard and Rudd are badly advised by their consultants and ministerial courtiers. They appear to be 'new chums' with a limited presentist outlook. They appear to be servants of the market rather than the public interest. They cannot be called public servants, because politicians of both parties have systematically destroyed the independent educational bureaucracy which could advise them on the basis of accumulated information and knowledge. A public servant worth their salt is prepared to advise Ministers of the Crown on matters they do not know as well as those matters they do not wish to know. 

The educational advisers employed by Rudd and Gillard appear to be providing only that advice which Rudd and Gillard wish to hear. The old fashioned word for such advisers is syncophants.

Powerful Forces at Work in the Body Politic

Since the 1960s there have been powerful forces at work within the body politic which have had a deleterious effect on the checks and balances in our liberal democratic society where popular consent is supposed to matter. The church school faction through both overt and covert action has wrought havoc on independent thought and action in both academic  departments ( education, history and politics); the written and spoken media; the three arms of government ( executive, legislative and judicial) and in various public education pressure groups and civil liberty organisations. Those who in the past have fought for public education have often muzzled themselves through fear of the sectarian label.

 Since the 1960s readers will not discover in the Press, academic journals or books extensive discussion on the continuous and continual breakdown of the groups and persons in leadership positions.  Both within and without the bureaucracy they were supposed to look after public education and the public good. They failed.

A true record of the State Aid issue and the clash between public and private is hard to find .

Fortunately DOGS have retained much evidence on the working over of the body politic. This evidence is contained in our pamphlets, news releases, submissions to the Interim and Schools Commission which were put on the public record; letters to Ministers of Education ( Federal and State) and their occasional replies; letters to parliament; submissions to the Australian Press Council. The most damning evidence can be discovered in the paid Advertisements in various newspapers. ( e.g. The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review and the Canberra Times.)

Our  pamphlet on the High Court Case, namely The Erosion of the Judicial Process was sent to every major library in Australia. It was removed from a large number of them. So, the DOGS started a web site in 1998 and you can find it here at  http://www.adogs.info/dogs_high_court_case1.htm

 It is important to note that only the DOGS have been prepared to bite the bullet and discuss the relative power of Church school factions in the body politic of English speaking countries.

Rudd and Gillard:  Examples of Burying History and being Buried by it.

'Needs' Policy Old Hat

Gillard thinks that her consideration of the needs of children is a novelty. On 18 July 2008 she said:

The debate we need to be having is not a sterile debate about public versus private. Instead it should be a rich new debate, a debate in which we wrestle with and then resolve the question of how to measure the needs of children...

As noted above, there is nothing novel about this idea. Public School administrators and politicians in the nineteenth century were on about this when they established our public school systems. They realised that the private sector was only interested in some of the children, never all of them. The denominational system failed then as it is failing now. In the 1960s Senator Lionel Murphy and Senator Sam Cohen were concerned about the needs of all children, not just those selected by private schools for the first class ticket to heaven and the good job.

The educational needs of children is not a new idea. The problem with Gillard is that she can not see past pleasing the church school faction. Because they put religious and financial tests on children this sector is interested in the welfare of the minority and not the majority of Australian children.

If Gillard is to tackle the issue of the welfare of ALL Australian children, she needs to understand and admit that only the public sector is free, secular universal, and available to all children.  It is the only sector open to all children. She needs to understand how the church school faction has corrupted the public accountability process since 1973. There has never been a successful application of the Needs policy in either the Interim Karmel Committee, the Schools Commission nor the versions since 1988. The  powerful church school faction has made it into a sick joke.

As Senator Ryan indicated,  the whole purpose of the needs based approach to the funding of education in Australia instituted under the Whitlam Labor government  was to remove 'that sectarian division'. It hasn't removed it. It has exacerbated it. And now, Gillard thinks that the only way she can remove it is to tell us that she just doesn't want to know about it.

Gillard's Education Revolution is Ideological, not Evidence Based.

The attitude of Gillard is anti-educational and anti-evidence. She talked about evidence based policy. Yet she doesn't want to know about evidence of the rorting of the public treasury; the inadequate collection of evidence by the public bureaucracies; the destruction of any evidence based needs policy; and the running down of public education.

Public Education supporters have produced hard evidence and how does she treat it?  She abuses the messenger and doesn't want to know the facts! Evidence of this? Look above at her reaction to the McMorrow Report commissioned by the AEU. 

School Funding Mess

At least Julia Gillard has accepted the view of the Australian Council of Educational Research that:

Australia's school funding system is one of the most complex, most opaque and most confusing in the developed world.

She is not wrong there.

But she goes on to bemoan the lack of transparency in the last decade which has led to an atmosphere of uncertainty and mutual suspicion which has characterised the politics of education in Australia.

This outrageous situation has not just occurred under the Howard Government and Gillard can not clean out the Augean stables unless she looks at the underlying problem. The complex and opaque funding arrangements have arisen directly out of the activities of the church school faction and their direct and indirect influence on the bureaucracies and Ministries of Education throughout Australia.

 DOGS have been unable to get any Minister of the Crown since the 1970s to face up to anti-democratic funding mess. Public accountability for State Aid has long been a scandal. In  2008, the federal department of education was forced to admit that a church school's enrolments can end up being checked once every 50 years! Yet enrolments are the basis for billions of dollars of State Aid funding.

If Gillard is not prepared to face up to her Ministerial responsibilities and recognise the influence of the Church School faction on the funding system since at least the 1970s, she will be buried in a further mess.

League Tables

Many educational writers have already attacked Gillard on her  comparison of school performance ('League Tables') As bad as these critics claim Gillard's approach will be, not one has taken into account the difference in the power of the church school interest to magnify differences between systems and schools in Australia.

Gillard's scheme, if applied in Australia will cause even greater trouble and angst for public school interests than any other place in the English speaking world.

Imagine the number of schools being closed on the basis of the v fear created in the minds of insecure middle class parents by private school interests. Look at how they have already succeeded in undermining public education. Imagine what they will do with this bogus tool.

In Australia, as Latham and others have discovered, private school interests have proved more savage and vicious in their attacks on  anyone standing between them and the public purse than anywhere else in the world. 

You can't design educational provision for all children, particularly disadvantaged children on the basis of such tests.

Perhaps Gillard is about attacking our schools, closing them and handing them over to multinational corporations, religious or otherwise.

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