AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

PRESS RELEASE 383

EDUCATION FUNDING REVIEW

COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOL

SUBMISSION ON THE TERMS OF REFERENCE

27 May 2010

The Australian Council for the Defence of Government Schools was established in the 1960s to defend public education and separation of church and state.

As a result they oppose State Aid to church schools.

Their opposition has proved prophetic. Everything they predicted would happen in the 1960s is now happening.

o       Private sectarian interests have expanded at the expense of the public system .

o       To cries of ‘poor parish schools’ the major sectarian systems have received billions of dollars of public funds and flourished while

o       many public schools have withered and, in some cases, been privatized.

o       The various “Needs” policies espoused by both Labor and conservative governments have been travesties of the term. From 1973 onwards wealthy elite schools in both Catholic and Protestant systems have demanded their cut of the cake before any money trickled down to the poor.

o       The current SES system has exposed the view of “needs’ by religious administrators and their political allies as “greeds”

o       The existence of “ghost schools” “ghost pupils” and “ghost teachers” ( See our Press Releases on these issues) makes a nonsense of accountability for public money by sectarian systems of education.

o       Even the Commonwealth Auditor General was concerned by the lack of proper checks and balances placed on enrolment data provided by sectarian institutions.

DOGS THEREFORE CALL ON THE FUNDING REVIEW TO TAKE OVER ALL SECTARIAN SCHOOLS WHICH ARE NOW SUBSTANTIALLY FUNDED FROM THE PUBLIC PURSE AND TURN THEM INTO GENUINELY PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

In the Alternative:

In principle DOGS welcome the setting up of an Education Funding Review. A proper analysis and accounting for the billions of dollars that have been poured into sectarian and exclusive education institutions at the expense of public education is long overdue. A proper enquiry into the lack of accountability and transparency in the alienation of public funds into private church corporations is also overdue.

DOGS have been requesting such enquiries for decades. We refer the Board to the Press Releases on our website and the Newspaper Advertisements inserted at considerable expense in the past forty years. Our News Releases can be viewed at www.adogs.info/

However, DOGS question the ability of the personnel chosen by Ms Gillard to look critically at the glaring inequities in the resources as well as the public funding of the private religious sector in Australia.

Personnel

Three out of the four people appointed by Julia Gillard to the current enquiry have either long term or current commitments to the private corporate and/or religious sector. Only one, Dr. Ken Boston,  has any background in public education or commitment to its well being.  DOGS refer members of the enquiry to our Press Release 382 at  www.adogs.info/pr382.htm

Terms of Reference

DOGS  support many of the terms of reference, particularly those which refer to data collection. However, even on this level they leave much to be desired.

Taxation Expenditures

No mention is made of indirect grants of public money to the private sectarian sector through taxation exemptions for both schools and parents.

Recommendation:

DOGS recommend that the Review be asked to assess the taxation expenditures on private sectarian schools incurred through taxation exemptions on

§        Rates,

§        Land Tax

§        GST

§        Fringe Benefits Tax

§        Parent contributions and building funds etc.

Private Contributions and Endowments

Any proper analysis of educational funding in Australia should take account of the fee structures, private contributions, trust endowments, the profits from business enterprises etc.  available to both individual schools and sectarian school systems.

Recommendation

The a full analysis of the fee structures, private contributions, trust endowments, the profits from business enterprises etc.  available to both individual schools and sectarian school systems be included in the terms of reference.

Proper comparison of Public funding the private and public sector.

Many of the terms of reference take the form of motherhood statements. As a whole the terms of reference avoid any historical analysis of the current problems inherent in the wasteful duplication of resources caused by private sectarian schools setting themselves up in opposition to the public system and being publicly funded to do so. No calculation has been made ( as it was in the nineteenth century) of the cost to the taxpayer of the inefficient and expensive duplication of educational facilities in this country by sectarian interests.

Statistics provided to date by sectarian lobbyists calculate from total direct grant figures. They leave out the incremental costs to the public system of expensive areas of educational provision, - those avoided by the private sector. Whereas the public system is open to all children, the private sectarian sector can pick and choose amongst fee paying consumers.

Recommendation

That the Review calculate the cost to the taxpayer of the inefficient and expensive duplication of educational facilities in this country by sectarian interests and calculate the cost to the taxpayer for the provision of one first class public system open to all children, one that is public in purpose, outcome, access, ownership, control, accountability and provision in this country.

What does the final requirement in the Draft Terms of Reference mean?

DOGS note with interest the final point in the draft terms of reference:

What if any, transitional assistance should be made to schools making a transition to a new system?

Does this refer to schools making a transition to a new system of reporting on the expenditure of public money? Or does it refer to schools making a transition to a new system of schooling?

DOGS note that the only way that proper public accountability for public money can be given by any school is if it is a genuinely public school. The elephant in the room, the basic problem that has no name in the morass that is educational funding and disadvantage in Australia is State Aid to sectarian schools.

In the 1960s DOGS predicted what is now occurring.

Recommendation:

If there is any transition to a new system, any responsible government should take over all schools that receive public funding and demand that they are not only publicly accountable for all public funding of any kind, but should be publicly accessible to every child, parent, or teacher regardless of their class, creed, culture or geographical location.

The Terms of Reference should therefore address:

·        Failure of all forms of Needs Policies to date and an examination of the reasons why

·        The uneconomic duplication of public school facilities by sectarian and sectionalist facilities throughout Australia

·        The growing areas of disadvantage in educational provision caused by the siphoning off of public funds from public schools

·        An objective examination of the preference given to establishment of new sectarian schools over local community, public schools particularly in new development areas like Mernda, Victoria.

·        The proper costing of the provision of a first rate public system of education accessible to all children and offensive to none and the provision of a genuinely independent system of education - free of the public purse free from public control and offering genuine freedom of choice.

 

 

 

 

 

DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION AND STOP STATE AID TO PRIVATE RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS.

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