School’s out for Howard
John Howard thinks Labor’s proposed school funding system would be “the thin end of the wedge”. In other words, Labor is secretly plotting to remove all the funding from private schools. Nobody really believes that — least of all the schools themselves, who are overwhelmingly opposed to Howard’s model.
The public schools obviously oppose it. The Catholic schools, all 1700 of them, are “opposed to the model and [are] expected to support Labor’s approach.” The same goes for Christian Schools Australia, which represents a great many of the low-fee Christian schools the government claims its policy benefits:
The chief executive of Christian Schools Australia, Stephen O’Doherty, said he had proposed a moderated form of the Government’s socio-economic model to the federal Education Minister, Dr Brendan Nelson. It would take into account school fees and expenditure, and act as an incentive for schools to maintain “affordable fees”. “I’m glad Labor’s given the issue some traction,” he said.
That’s a polite way of saying, “We prefer Labor’s plan, but we want a new policy before the next election.”
Really the only schools that support Howard’s funding model are the ultra-wealthy schools like King’s School and Trinity Grammar. As many commentators, like Andrew Bolt, have noted, “Most [parents] don’t send their children to a place with flash facilities either, but to a low-fee Christian school” — the same ones that have criticised the government and leapt on board with Labor.
And of course, that means the parents at those schools will probably support Labor too. For all this waffle about “values” and the (vastly overstated) influence of the AEU, the single most tangible aspect of schools policy is funding. Most people vote according to their hip pockets, and that’s especially true of the “aspirationals” who will decide the next election. Labor will spend more money on more of their children than the Coalition, and will pick up more votes as a result.
I suspect that Brendan Nelson’s recent commitment not to alter the current arrangements might soon turn out to be a “non-core promise”.
T`would be pleasing to see fairness and equity in education funding, but under Howard, it’s not likely to happen.
When State Aid was first coming in, some of us who didn’t support what we saw coming, but accepted that some form of State Aid was inevitable, tried desperately to argue within the Labor Party, for a means tested approach that would help disadvantaged schools.
The NSW Teachers’ Federation, although not affiliated to the ALP, condemned any such move. In part due to the sectarian bitterness prevalent among the “activist” leadership at the time, they fought bitterly against what they saw as helping the Catholic Parochial schools.
It’s too late now to talk about a system that helps only those schools most in need. The irony of the situation is that the Federation’s policy helped create a situation in which more and more of their own teachers are now refusing to send their own children to State Schools.