AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 308
THE BONUS CULTURE IN
SCHOOLS
Over the past few decades we have seen numerous
attempts to undermine the public ownership, public control, and public accountability
of our public schools systems. The New Right mantra that private is better than
public, which, given the history of successful service delivery in this
country, is ‘un-Australian’, is still emanating from the think-tanks advising
Julia Gillard and State Education Ministers.
In an article entitled ‘The Bonus Culture in Schools’ in
the New South Wales Teachers Federation Journal, Education, for August 17 2009,
John Dixon, the Assistant General Secretary (Communications and Administration)
wrote:
Over the past few decades we have seen the
fashionable trends among some governments, educational bureaucrats and
principals’ groups towards ‘letting the managers manage’ and devolution of
educational systems to individual schools, allegedly on the altar of ‘flexibility’
and ‘efficiency’….The people who push for greater principals’ power, often with
religious fervour, sometimes fail to point out the dangers to principals and
others when things go very wrong.
He goes on to give an example of what happens to the
idea of ‘bonuses’, when these are transferred from the financial to the
education sector. We have discovered in the last two years what happened when
young financial wiz kids in the banking system chased after bonuses with
extraordinary ‘financial products’. The following story from England, the home
of league tables, trust schools ( often faith schools) and privatisation
indicates that the ‘bonus’ culture is equally dangerous for public education.
Sir Alan Davies, the head teacher of the Copland community
school in Brent, north-west
Why was he suspended?
Roberts found that in 2004-2005 Sir Alan received a
65,000 pound bonus and his deputies 45,000 pound bonuses each and last year Sir
Alan received an 80,000 pounds bonus on top of his 100,000 pounds salary.
Sir Alan admitted to himself taking thousands of
pounds in bonuses. It is further alleged that up to one million pounds was to
the school’s senior management team over seven years. And now the school’s
governing body has been sacked by the schools secretary Ed Balls. Only private
schools in
Mr Roberts has long been a union activist and fierce
opponent of academies. He, along with 99% of the staff at Copland opposed it’s
being turned into a trust schools in which the head (principal) had more
autonomy and could be paid bonuses. Although Sir Alan attempted to suspend him –
for other reasons- he continued to play the part of whistleblower.
Now Roberts is pleased with himself. He hopes the
investigation will lead to real questions being asked about what he calls the ‘bonus
culture’ in schools. Also, he believes good will come of it at Copland. He
pointed out that one year’s bonus for Sir Alan was equivalent to the textbook
budget, and the school was very dilapidated. He also hopes he had made school
privatisation harder to justify, for in a trust school or an academy it would
have been almost impossible to stop the Copland bonuses. A full account of this story is available at
the Guardian online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/jul/07/hank-roberts-copland-community-school
DOGS point out that our politicians and private church
school operators should be held to account for the extraordinary wastage of
public money on the wealthy church schools of our community, while our poor
State schools are expected to put up with the crumbs. Our public school
teachers and parents are also expected to treat education as a commodity with
performance testing like leagues tables and a bonus culture for principals and
teachers.
EDUCATION IS A RIGHT NOT A COMMODITY
FOR THOSE WHO CAN PAY FOR THE FIRST CLASS TICKET TO HEAVEN AND THE GOOD JOB
DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION
AND STOP STATE AID TO PRIVATE RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS.
Listen to the DOGS program
3CR, 855 on the A.M. dial
12 Noon Saturdays