AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT
SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 854
THE SIREN SONG OF INTEGRATED PRIVATE SCHOOLS :
CAN PRIVATE EVER BE PUBLIC?
The business model of the private sector has come under strain; gross inequities resulting from public funding of private schools are exposed by catastrophes – witness the current plague.
Consider the very basic recurrent funds 2018 information from the MYSCHOOL website for just a few Victorian schools. These figures illustrate a system for children of an oligarchy, not a democracy.
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RECURRENT FUNDING OF SELECT VICTORIAN PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS |
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|
ICSEA value |
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|
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|
|
$ |
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|
Index of |
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|
2018 |
|
|
Per |
|
SCHOOL |
community |
|
State |
Federal |
private |
Total |
Student |
|
|
socio-economic |
|
$ million |
$million |
$million |
$million |
|
|
|
advantage |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Geelong |
1152 |
Corio |
1.001 |
6.981 |
30.887 |
40.972 |
27,948 |
|
Grammar |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Scotch |
1191 |
Hawthorn |
1.336 |
5.288 |
58 |
65 |
31,666 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wesley |
1159 |
Prahran |
2.221 |
11.393 |
99.123 |
115.51 |
31,597 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Xavier |
1179 |
Kew |
1.091 |
6.981 |
30.887 |
38.959 |
26,473 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Haileybury |
1179 |
Keysborough |
3.757 |
24.688 |
93036 |
127 |
30,130 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ivanhoe Grammar |
1145 |
Ivanhoe |
1.428 |
11.498 |
52.369 |
87 |
37,738 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Acquinas |
1065 |
Ringwood |
3.843 |
15.001 |
11.366 |
30.888 |
30,888 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
De La Salle |
1114 |
Malvern |
2.006 |
7.702 |
12.139 |
22.519 |
20,196 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kilbreda |
1060 |
Mentone |
2.019 |
7.922 |
5.734 |
16.062 |
17.197 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Parade College |
1059 |
Bundoora |
4.537 |
18.368 |
12.849 |
29.763 |
16.098 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Simonds College |
1015 |
West Melb. |
1.4672 |
5.167 |
1.314 |
7.988 |
18,363 |
|
College |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Al Noor Muslim College |
1024 |
Greenacre |
4.363 |
15.121 |
4.938 |
25.317 |
13,933 |
|
University High School |
1132 |
Parkville |
14.156 |
3.267 |
1.452 |
19.88 |
13.837 |
|
Melbourne High School |
1168 |
Sth Yarra |
12.605 |
2.982 |
4.426 |
21.355 |
15,753 |
|
Whittlesea Secondary College |
956 |
Whittlesea |
2.034 |
8.696 |
0.245 |
11.285 |
11,700 |
|
Hoppers Crossing Secondary |
968 |
Hoppers Xing |
16279 |
3.803 |
0.491 |
20657 |
14,043 |
As demands for ever greater public funding of failing and flailing private schools hit the Treasury, the siren sound of an integrated public/private system is heard.
What does this mean? It means fully funding the recurrent costs of non-government i.e. private schools which then cannot charge fees and are expected to have an open enrolment policy. Accountability for public money would also be expected, although the administration and ownership of funds and property would be the preserve of private systems.
Such schools would be public in access, and input only. The ownership and control of such schools would still be private. The taxpayers would continue to enrich private, often religious, corporations. And, given the track record of private systems in the past, according to the Auditor Generals at both federal and State levels, accountability would still be an issue.
Professor Piccoli of the Gonski Institute at the University of New South Wales is singing the current song from the integration hymn sheet on August 11, 2020 at https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-way-to-fix-the-biggest-structural-problem-in-australian-education-20200808-p55jv4.html
DOGS note that the denominational system failed in the nineteenth century and it is failing our children in the twenty first century. Full stop.
Look at the current level of inequity evident on the MYSCHOOL website for just a small sample of schools in Melbourne:
DOGS suggest that Piccoli is well meaning but mistaken. The Catholic system has thousands of years experience in the art of dissembling. Such a multinational corporation alongside almost other religious systems, will never give up control and ownership of property, let alone accountability, for public money. The only system that can offer equity, accountability and public ownership and control is a public system.
The time has come to just take over the schools that go bankrupt without both fees and public funding and make them genuinely public schools. Our children are safest with a proven public system, not private-public quangos. .
LISTEN TO THE DOGS PROGRAM
855 ON THE AM DIAL: 12.00 NOON SATURDAYS
