The problem is laid out very well, with what seems like all aspects carefully considered. It is very well written and easy to follow, but where are the solutions? Is it no more private schools, no more selective schools? That seems harsh, so what are the solutions? Should schools in poor areas be given more money per student to make up for the money richer parents pay for extra tuition? How much extra money would be appropriate? Would that be acceptable to middle class parents? How can we be certain that poor kids are not missing out on the rungs of the ladder while still ensuring that people who want to make choices (be they rich or poor) can still make choices?

The parents of the 24% of children now attending private schools might tell themselves and others that they are chasing a superior "value system", but more than likely they are simply maximising outcomes for their kids by chasing "value for money". In throwing taxpayer funding at elite private schools and religious schools, at the direct expense of under-funded public schools, the Howard Government has manufactured an incentive for parents to move out of the public system towards the better funded private system. These parents are just going where the money is, and the rest of the country and its kids can get stuffed. The public system will get worse and worse, and eventually will be taken out the back and shot. Same with the health system. Then it can all be contracted out to american business interests, and we can all stop worrying about where our taxes are going.

Also, the education system selects or leave with less chance of improvement to students who have low performance in their early years in High School, affecting their personality, bahaviour and reducing their chance to become a good performers in the last years of High School. The education system must support strongly to students under poverty and low performers to become good Australian citizens.

The Public system has been destroyed by soft option leftist ideology.No discipline,few values,let the state support me.They have been the masters of their own demise.