Despite the fancy name of the Rudd Government’s $1.3 billion ‘National School Pride’ initiative, rolled out in May this year, there’s little to be proud of. Around 6000 schools across the country have received between $50,000 and $200,000 as part of the Government’s ‘nation building’ agenda. However it’s not just schools on struggle street that have received the handout. As much as 40 per cent of the funding has gone to the wealthy private schools.
Elite schools like Kings, Sydney Grammar, Melbourne Grammar and Scotch College have all received the maximum payout for ‘building and construction’ operations. This is on top of the $20,000 or so they get from almost every student and the government support they already receive. By definition, private schools are private—they are financially independent. So why are they receiving so much taxpayer money?
‘The schools to benefit from this program should have been those in greatest need,’ says Angelo Gavrielatos of the Australian Education Union (AEU). ‘The money has not been well targeted’. By this he means that the policy does not help to even the educational playing field.
In March 2008, the Government pledged its commitment to combating inequality in secondary education. They announced a plan to introduce the socio-economic status (SES) index into the public school system. This would allocate funding according to the specific needs and socio-economic status of a particular school and would help alleviate educational disadvantage. Since then, the advance of the global financial crisis has seen this pledge go out the window, along with the hopes that we’d seen the end of the Howard era’s favouritism towards private schools.
Over the past decade the gap has only widened. Fred Argy from the University of Western Australia’s Institute for Advanced Studies reckons that uneven government funding is to blame. ‘The total per capita spending on education is (on average) a quarter to a third more for children attending private schools than for children in a public secondary school’. The OECD places Australia in the ‘high quality/low equity’ bracket. So Australia
does offer a high standard of schooling, but its only available to Australians that can afford it. In fact, the public school system is in need of an additional $2.4 billion annually to bring their schools up to basic standards according to the Government’s own Schools Task Force.
The Government defends the plan by saying that it will create jobs for Australians in lower socio-economic brackets. ‘It is the tradies and others involved in the construction industry who will benefit,’ says Treasurer Wayne Swan. Fair enough. But why can’t these very same ‘tradies’ be paid to build necessary infrastructure like science labs and classrooms in disadvantaged schools, instead of installing Japanese gardens or an observatory in a wealthy school? Why can’t we create jobs that close the gap in schooling rather than increase it?
Even if the plan provides the economic benefits that the Government claims it will, basic values like the right to a quality education should not be sacrificed. Some things must take precedence, even in a recession.
But if economics is the priority then maybe we should be looking at the long-term damage to the economy that unfair schooling brings: lower income, higher rates of unemployment, less innovation and development of knowledge-based industries. Education is the key to a good economy. As HG Wells famously stated, ‘human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe’.
I’m not suggesting we resurrect Mark Latham’s school ‘hit-list’ and stop all government funding to private schools. Clearly not all non-government schools are built of sandstone and have more money than Mr. Burns. But we can create jobs
and close the education gap. Even after the recession has ended and economic growth returns, Australia will not be a truly prosperous nation until it supports a fair go for all.
How do I know this?
1. Argy, F. ‘Education Inequalities within Australia’. The New Critic. Issue 5 May 2007
2. Australian Government. ‘Review of Australian Higher Education Final Report’. December 2008,
http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Review/
Documents/PDF/Higher%20Education%20Review_one%20document_02.pdf
3. Bowen, C. ‘From struggle street to a degree’. The Sydney Morning Herald. April 22 2009
4. M. Justman, M. Meier, V. The Political Economy of Education: implications for growth and inequality. MIT Press. 2004
5. Kelly, P. ‘Gillard to end school inequality’. The Australian. March 15 2008Gradstein
6. MacBean, N. ‘School pride’ funding fair enough: Gillard’. ABC News. April 6 2009,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/06/2535686.htm
7. OECD ‘Education and Equity’ OECD Observer February 2004
8. SBS World News Australia. ‘Gillard defends private schools payments’. April 6 2009
9. The Independent Weekly. ‘Funding for rich private schools will support jobs: Gillard’ April 4 2009
10. The Sydney Morning Herald. ‘Govt defends private school payments’. April 6 2009
11. The Daily Telegraph. ‘National School Pride funding for wealthy schools will create jobs says Gillard’. April 6 2009
