Privatisation of Education.
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In her essay "Rich Kid Poor Kid" celebrated author and long term commentator on the public funding of private schools Jane Caro is scathing in her assessment of the social class division in which schools are playing a greater and greater role. The runaway growth and elitism that has resulted is a dangerous threat to an egalitarian led democracy that "The Lucky Country" has been so proud to flout over many generations, the Spirit of ANZAC at its very core. Our own Professor Colin Power, now retired, when Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO found, after many years of extensive research, that "when countries privatise their education systems, learning standards always decline and inequity increases."
His conclusions that cry out to all Australians have been completely ignored by education policy makers, politicians and faith and private school lobbyists, doggedly driving their own short term agendas above the best long term outcomes for the nation. Menzies got the funds to private education flowing so as to be Prime Minister one more time and Whitlam was hardly reticent on continuing the trend, though free universities was a positive contribution. Frazer enshrined the practice in legislation and Howard rode over the precautionary guard rails of Hawke and Keating to open the flood gates of funding to private education, not just schools, through his cynical adoption of the "Parent Choice" mantra. With his Dr Kemp at the helm the free for all floodgates were opened, resulting in the gradual then escalating demolition of public school education, free, compulsory and secular for all.
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Rudd made a mighty splash with his Education Revolution that delivered lots of expensive buildings and Gillard allowed the ball roll on when, with Gonski recommendations in he purse promised "No schools will be worse off" and no private schools were, but a lot more were becoming worse off in the public sector. Five Federal Education Ministers ensured the Gonski SRS funding for public schools was kept at bay, ably supporting by their three prime ministers, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison; Turnbull giving it a half hearted effort to rectify the situation, Morrison pouring an extra $10b into the private school bucket and at the same time topping up the Job Keeper bucket with his $75m private school salary grant where there was no need at all for it. The need of course was personal, an election was looming.
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Finally after four years the Albanese government decided to adopt the Gonski SRS recommendations for public education, funding it to 25% of its budget, 75% left to the states, but not fully until 2034 and only if stringent performance outcome goals are met. The only funding conditions the private school sector is responsible for are "To teach the curriculum and not break the law" which is a bit rich when they are by law excluded from the Racial Discrimination Act.
Whilst knowing the history of how our nation's education system has become the most discriminatory and inequitable in all of the OECD countries may be useful, analysing the outcomes of such rabid social engineering through education funding is heartbreaking. All of society, the rich and the poor, the young and the elderly, now suffer the results of class stratification, even as far as the ghettoisation of schools and their communities which can be directly linked to the 2026 Bondi Massacre.
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If the current education model suits your lifestyle and aspirations for your children or you see political or religious gain in keeping it as such you must also be prepared to manage the dire social outcomes it has bred, and as we all know they are becoming more expensive every day. But the greatest of all is the disruption, erosion and disintegration of our Egalitarian Democracy as we witness in the USA and is happening here in our Lucky Country. There's surely a jingle there!