My wife taught for many years in government schools. She now teaches in a private school in a low-socio economic area. She reports that the behaviour of the kids, the interest their parents show, and the support she and her colleagues get from school management makes the government school system look like reform schools for thugs, without the discipline.

Our own children went to government schools, as did we. But, if I had to go through the process again, there is no way in the world that I would condemn any child to a government education; their performance is so bad that they should not be receiving any money at all from taxpayers, if we are talking value for money.

When people like Jane Caro rubbish private schools, they seem only to mention the few – very few – elite organisations; simply because they are the only ones who could, possibly, be subjected to some ridicule. Even there, however, they are expected to, and do, offer scholarships to kids without the means to pay the fees. They are not just handed obligation-free money.

American education is all of the things the author claims. But, the success of their system can be put down to a different attitude shown by students and parents than the one demonstrated in this country.

Parents do not have to be rich to send their children to private schools in Australia. Like other things which work better under private stewardship, all education should be private.

Taxpayer’s money should be put where it will do most good, and that place is not government schools

An excellent article and not just because it matches my views. On the basis of school funding no parent or grandparent who believes in equal opportunity could justify voting for the Howard Government. As a society we need to ensure that we provide an education which encourages enquiring minds and which ensures that each child reaches his or her full potential. That won't happen under people like John Howard or Julie Bishop.

Just a comment that the ad shown on this page is inappropriate.

It shows a man siting in a toilet, and that toilet is supposed to be his office. I think this is quite representative of the way the advertising industry treats the male gender.

But in the area of education, I think that throwing more and more money at the schools (whether they be private or state) will not necessarily bring about improvements in student outcomes.

It is teaching methods that are the main determinant of student outcomes.

Leigh, Caro did not rubbish private schools.

She pointed out that the governments of this country and its states are allowing public schools to go to the dogs while handing out largesse to private schools.

Private school education in this country is pretty good, always has been. But public education used to be of a comparable standard -- it isn't any more, because the private system has been able to draw away many of the children of the (very large) middle class, leaving public schools struggling for enrolment-based funds at the same time as catering for a generally poorer demographic.

Those talented children who might have raised the bar at the same time as helping their peers to reach it are now, "for their own good", sent by their equally-talented parents (who probably attended public schools themselves) to private schools where they can grow up into fine little snobs who have no idea how the other half live and don't particularly care.

It's the public schools that are rubbish, and present Federal government policy ensures that they can only fall further behind.

It's all very well for the Federal government to say State education is the exclusive responsibility of the States, and it's up to the States to fund them, but why then is private education not the responsibility of private institutions, and why are State schools not eligible for the same Federal subsidy as the private ones?

Howard's government has rubbished Australian public schools. No-one has rubbished the private schools here.

Dear Leigh,
Relative merits of public and private aside, what do you think we should do about the children whose parents either cannot or will not pay fees? Just toss them on the scrap heap? Whether you think public schools are currently good, bad or indifferent, is that a good reason to walk away from the ideal of universal free compulsory education for all children, regardless of who their parents are? Are you really suggesting the Australian govt should be the first in the democratic world to wash its hands of public education?
By the way, while you seem to consider you know all about all of our public schools, there are tens of thousands of them in Australia, and, as their students, once they get to uni outperform both their selective and private school peers by an average of 5 marks by the end of their first year, the evidence would suggest that at least some of those schools must be doing something right.

When people choose to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy a service that they can in fact get for free, you have to conclude that they are highly dissatisfied with the free service. This is the issue that most advocates of public education refuse to face. When parents buy a private education, they in fact buy the company of fellow students for their own children. They buy what they hope is an atmosphere of discipline and learning. The teachers are the same in both types of schools, the curriculum is pretty much the same, and the resources - outside of a few elite private schools - are pretty much the same. The parents who send their children to private schools do not have any duty to leave them in poor government schools because they will experience diversity if they stay.

The government “system” needs massive investment to upgrade facilities, to reduce teaching loads and to pay teachers the sort of salaries that they could earn 30 years ago so that more able and independent-minded graduates enter teaching. It also needs to reverse its inefficient aping of private schools which has turned Victorian government schools into competing small businesses, which have become bogged down in accountability requirements and the re-inventing of the wheel. Finally, it needs a much greater emphasis on learning and stronger discipline. Parents need to be confident that their local government school will be a calm, safe and learning-focused environment. Then they would not want to spend the extra tens of thousands of dollars buying what they could have for free.

HRS,

Money has never been thrown at education in this country.