I was wondering where this was heading, until right at the foot of the article came a spray in favour of Charter Schools.

Not contented with jumping onto this particular bandwagon without justification for whatever he thinks Charter Schools will actually will achieve, he then tops it all off.

He nails his colours to the mast in his last sentence, which really should have been his first.

The Holy Grail is:
Unregistered (Underqualified? Underpaid? Third rate?) teachers.
Freewheeling curriculum.
Exemption from the Official Information Act.

Australians should reject any proposal to provide public funds to organisations which have goals of dumbing down and ripping off teachers, avoiding following a curriculum or avoiding disclosure of what they are about.

Registered, qualified are not teachers, they are at the beginning. A Credential is merely a permission slip to demonstrate capability, not the proof off.

Yes, “the new funding model is flawed”. It is flawed because it keeps the Howard government’s SES funding model in place.

Yes, non-government “schools will lose funding” if they are put on the Gonski model because the new model keeps the Howard government’s SES funding model in place. Almost half the private schools in the country would lose funding under the current Howard SES model for exactly the same reason that they would under the Gonski SES model: neither model takes any notice of school fees; both models fund schools on the basis of the wealth of the students’ neighbours, thuds punishing low-free (and thus the most inclusive) private schools. The only reason such schools do not in fact lose money now is that they have not been forced onto the Howard SES model – they are still funded according to Labor’s more rational ERI model. Similarly, no school will in fact lose money in real terms under Labor’s plan because their current funding per student is guaranteed and indexed at 3 per cent. They will of course lose in relative terms as those schools on the Gonksi SES model will have their money indexed at 3.6 per cent.

Labor cannot “copy the Coalition's commitment to properly fund non-government schools” because the Coalition has no such commitment. It too wants to keep the idiotic SES model, the model that punishes low-fee private schools so badly that they are still funded on Labor’s ERI model, not the Coalition’s SES model.

How long is Kevin Donnelly going to keep up this charade that the Gonski SES funding model is not the same as the Howard SES funding model?

Howard Lite?

The Howard part was solemnly repeating Howard's blatant lies about Iraqi WMDs in order to justify following the Yanks into aggressive war.

The Lite part was to add that we should not invade Iraq.

Yet.

BTW, Howard is still bleating that he didn't lie about the WMDs. He said on TV the other day that he was keeping faith with the Yanks and that he was taking advice from the spooks. He did not add that he had vilified the spook who spoke the truth - Andrew Wilkie. Rudd has wisely kept shtum. Still Lite!

Dear Mr Emperor
you are ded right

Under Mr Howard we invaded Iraq
and under Mr Rudd Iraq invaded australia one boatlaod at a time