AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE
DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 388
GILLARD A FAILURE FOR
PUBLIC EDUCATION
WHAT ABOUT THE GREENS?
July 8, 2010
In an article entitled ‘Gillard ranks as
a failure on education,’ in The Age
of July 5, 2010, p.11. Kenneth Davidson gives a long
list of reasons why public school supporters cannot vote for the ALP in the
coming federal election.
His provided five reasons for Gillard’s
failure as an Education Minister for Public Education:
1.
Continuation
of the Howard Government’s ‘toxic’ policies: The continuation to 2012 of the
reprehensible funding system for non-government schools. As a supporter of some
form of ‘Needs” policy Davidson notes that the latest figures show that total
resources per secondary school student available to Geelong
Grammar is $30,000 per student including nearly $4000 from the Commonwealth. By
comparison, total recurrent expenditure on secondary students was $12,288 for
Catholic systemic schools and $11, 407 for government school students, after
excluding the imputed cost of capital because it is not included in the
official estimate for non-government schools. Davidson also notes the
‘incremental cost’ argument, pointing out that the private religious sector can
‘cherry pick’ the education market. They have no obligation to provide remote
schools or take students with learning difficulties.This
means that
2.
Bad
Policy from the Perspective of Education as a Public Good: Davidson
agrees with Julie Bishop and Gillard that education is about values. But he
points out that it is now about whether education should be seen as a commodity
that can be bought to give access to top jobs, high incomes and social status,
or as a public good equally available to all in order to underpin an
egalitarian and democratic society. The major initiatives introduced by Gillard
under the rubric of the education revolution were bad policy from the
perspective of education as a public good. They were even worse
administratively.
3.
Administrative Bungles:
i.
School Computers: were an insult for schools with
dysfunctional toilets, leaking roofs and a disproportionate number of
traumatized refugee children. They didn’t have the funds needed to cover the
cost of operating and maintaining the computers.
ii.
The $16 billion Building the Education Revolution: Elite schools
with swimming pools got as much money as schools of a similar size with
playgrounds that are dust bowls in summer and bogs in winter. It should have
been directed to maintenance upgrades according to the greatest needs.
4.
NAPLAN
Testing and the
‘MySchool” website allowed the “naming and shaming”
of underperforming schools – mainly government schools in poor areas. Teaching
for tests impoverishes education and intensified residualisation
as the few parents with options scramble to get their children out of “failed”
schools.
5.
The
Funding Review: Finally someone besides the DOGS has woken up to the fact that the
Funding Review panel set up by Julia Gillard to inquire into school funding is
outrageously stacked against the public system. David Gonski,
the chairman, is a lawyer, investment banker and chairman of the Australian
Stock Exchange and Coca-Cola Amatil. He is an
ex-student and now chairman of
Kenneth Davidson is right. Julia Gillard and the ALP
has failed public education. So, where are its
supporters to turn in the coming election. The Greens
Education Policy is not anti-State Aid, but it does, on paper at least, place
public education and the common good rather than the values of the market place
into account. Their manifesto reads like the results of a brainstorming session
with butchers paper. Nevertheless, the sentiments
expressed are laudable. They remind DOGS of the motherhood statements of the
Whitlam years and the Interim Carmel Report of 1973.
DOGS quote some of their statements:
Principles
The Australian Greens believe that:
1. universal
access to high quality education is fundamental to
2. all people are entitled to free, well-funded and high quality, life-long public education and training.
3. the government has a primary responsibility to fund all levels of the public education system - early childhood education, schools, vocational education and training and universities - to provide high quality education to all students.
4. federal funding policy should prioritise the public education system to ensure that public schools are able to provide the highest quality educational experiences and high levels of enrolments in the public sector….
10. early childhood education is a critical component of lifelong learning and should be provided by government and accredited community organizations and not-for profit providers.
11. vocational education and training (VET) should be primarily provided through the public TAFE system while the community and not-for-profit VET sector should also be supported…
Goals
The Australian Greens want:
15. a public school system that is recognised as among the best in the world.
16. every child
in
17. increased funding to public education through funding models for all sectors of the education system to prioritise public education.
18. public education infrastructure to be adequately funded for capital works and maintenance to meet the highest environmental sustainability standards and remain in public ownership and control.
19. smaller class sizes throughout the public education system to ensure manageable workloads for all educators and best educational outcomes for all students.
20. higher teacher-student ratios in schools that suffer socioeconomic disadvantage, educate children with special needs and schools with a high proportion
The Australian Greens
will:
35. fund the construction of new public preschool facilities.
.
39. introduce the same accountability and transparency frameworks for government funding to non-government schools as applies to public schools and extend the anti-discrimination measures that apply in public schools to private schools.
40. ensure the viability and diversity of existing public schools is not endangered by the development of new private schools.
59. abolish the Commonwealth Government's inequitable schemes for funding private schools which link private school funding to the cost of educating students in the public system, including the socioeconomic status (SES) and 'funding maintained' formulae.
60. invest the money saved from ending public subsidies to the very wealthiest private schools into a national equity funding programme for public schools.
61. support
the maintenance of the total level of Commonwealth funding for private schools
at 2003-04 levels (excluding that re-allocated under previous
clauses), indexed for inflation, with a review at the end of the 2005-08 quadrennium.
62. end government funding for schools that operate for private profit.
It they
did their history, the Greens would discover that the
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