Press Releases

Birmingham and the Corruption of Gonski

Press Release 673

The declaration of Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham that a fix is needed on Gonski ‘corruption’ is correct. He even ( on Q & A 26/09/16) admitted to awareness of the ‘overfunding of wealthy schools’. But he has got the wrong end of the stick entirely.

The corruption of all Needs policies since the Karmel Report of 1973 has always been the outrageous diversion of money to the wealthy schools run by the religious institutions while the poor in public schools go begging. Nobody has been prepared to take on the biggest multinationals of all – the religious lobby.

The Reality and the Rhetoric Behind Educational Inequality

Press Release 670

Most of the commentary and debate in mainstream think tanks, interest groups, and political debates circle around the issue of growing educational inequalities.

The effects of inequalities, - if any are acknowledged - will have upon the national economy take centre stage. The political elite are waking up to the fact that their ‘globalisation’ ‘trickle down’ rhetoric has not convinced vast swathes of disadvantaged, disaffected voters. Hence the Brexit, Trump, and ‘Independents in the Senate’ phenomenon. As the wealthy avoid tax, the middle classes are hollowed out, the poor fall further into poverty and homelessness, and the ‘economy’, our democracy, and our children suffer. Educational deprivation and the running down of public education is part of a much bigger picture.
Academics, think tank commentariats, and politicians happily get bogged down in “To fund, or not to fund” debates.
Nobody is prepared to be politically incorrect and take on the ‘poor parish school’ myth perpetuated by the religious lobby. They seem incapable of working out why our nineteenth century forebears centralised public education, stopped State Aid and increased equality of opportunity.

The Report of the Inquiry into the Independent Public Schools initiative - The Failure of the “Independent Public School “

Press Release 668

o be Fair and Equal, Public Education requires a Centralised Administration.

In the nineteenth century, public education only succeeded in all colonial States of Australia because the administrators of the various systems of education realised that

they could only educate ALL the children and
protect and train ALL the teachers and
offer a career structure to teachers, headmasters and inspectors and finally,
have an accountable, efficient and effective administraton and
be the only recipients of public moneys.

if they CENTRALISED their administration.

Freeman Butts recognised this when he visited Australia in the 1950s and compared our superior system to that in America and England.

On the other side of the coin, the wealthy, and promotors of privatisation - the religious education systems - not only demanded privileged access to the public Treasury. They continually criticised ‘centralisation’. They have systematically undermined, and in some cases, taken over the centralised bureaucracies. Victoria has suffered badly from the ‘devolution’ fad. But the latest attempt to privatise public education is the idea of a fully devolved system, with ‘Independent’ public schools. But the Western Australian ‘experiment’ has failed the ‘student outcomes’ test.