WHY THE SURPRISE AT SECTARIAN SCHOOL FUNDING LOOPHOLES RUNNING UNCHECKED FOR YEARS?

2 September 2011

On 29 August, Justine Ferrari from the Age ran an interesting article on the way the Exclusive Brethren have ‘played the public funding system’ based on SES categories.

This is part of what she has to say at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/school-funding-loophole-runs-unchecked-for-five-years/story-fn59niix-1226124023966:

A LOOPHOLE in federal funding arrangements is continuing to allow private schools to run campuses sometimes hundreds of kilometres apart, serving different student populations but funded at the same level as the main school.

The loophole was identified in a 2006 review by the Education Department, which recommended it be investigated as part of an overhaul of the system.

"Under current legislation, there is no restriction on where a non-government school may set up a new campus provided that it is within the same state as the parent school," the review said. It noted a campus had the same funding status as the parent school, conferring a financial advantage to those whose funding was preserved at a higher level than their socio-economic status (SES). But five years on the loophole remains and several schools continue to take advantage of it.

Ferrari goes on to reveal the way the Exclusive Brethren have ‘played the system’.

DOGS are not surprised, but taxpayers and citizens should be worried at the rorting of the so-called ‘needs’ system by sectarian schools. There is nothing unlawful about what they are doing. As with tax-avoidance, short-changing the Treasury is a game - an amoral game - but a game nevertheless. It has been played from the very first provision of State Aid to sectarian institutions in the 1960s.

The so-called ‘Needs’ policy has always been a farce. Australia’s education system can have ‘equity ‘or ‘choice’ or user- pays based on sectarian entrance tests and ability to pay. It cannot have both.

DOGS have pointed this out since the Karmel Committee Report in 1973. The Exclusive Brethren are only playing the enormous loopholes in the system in the way the major sectarian systems have done for years. DOGS have blown the whistle many times in paid Advertisements. The silence to our complaints has been deafening.

For a list of the Advertisements see For example, The Age: 12 November 1970; 27 November , 1972, 4; 16 May 1973, 10; 12 July 1973, 14; 12 December 1975, 12 ; 23 June 1977, 16; 2 December 1977; 5 December, 1977, 12; 3 May 1984, 18; 28 November 1984, 20; 1 May 1985; 30 August 1988, 22-23; 2 March 1998, 11; April 26, 2005; 27 March 2006; The Herald: 1 December 1972, 11; 11 December 1975, 38; The Australian : 10 December 1975, 5;19 July 1985, 7; Canberra Times: 18 December 1980; 4 November 1983,11; 6 April 1984, 9.

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