Jane,

I respect your intelligence, however, you don't just hold a passionate belief, you are mounting a crusade. Further more, your main tenet that the partial funding to private schools deprives public schools of funds is as per the study to which I provided a link, completely unsubstantiated.

This leads me to speculate that you have a more visceral need to pursue this. I have seen similar passions in both sexes, but without feedback, what motivates you? Guilt? envy

[Deleted for flaming].

The Blue Cross, "..."setting up some private schools within the public system"... means exactly WHAT, I wonder?"

Simply put it means giving schools that are managing well and have a record of solid local support the independence to manage their own affairs without the BIG Sister of the Education Department hanging over their shoulders. Give them the money they are due and let them manage. Importantly, where they manage to raise more money locally or are able to get it done through local goodwill, do not 'adjust' their next annual budget downwards accordingly. Allow them the flexibility that private schools have regarding the skills they recruit, the source of the recruitment and the pay and conditions for staff.

Such schools would be managed by a board with local community representatives. A member or observer from the Education Department is not necessary and could be a constricting influence. It would be better to have independent representation on the audit committee from the private sector and that is often available free or at a vastly reduced rate. There are many public spirited professionals around.

Your insults reflect on your own credibility.

TBC,

A typical erudite public school response.

http://avn.org.au/

Please feel free to read the AVN website which in the words of the HCCC contains falsehoods and selectively excised information so as to put doubts in the mind of readers as to the efficacy of vaccination, with the result that children are dying of diseases nearly unheard of a generation ago.

While not vile as the AVN's website, JC's post employs the same tactics, hoping that a half truth if repeated frequently enough will get accepted as fact.

Oh Cornflower, you delicate petal, you... now, if there existed such a school as you describe, inhabiting within the state system, then clearly it is not being thwarted by the system, so I am not sure why it would need to be 'freed', just to be taken over by a cabal of over active 'well-wishers' to operate in total secrecy, as do the publicly subsidised 'not really private' private schools.

Please explain.

SM... you scrape the barrel in your attempt to compare Caro's words with that anti-vaccination mob, why do you bother to stoop so low?

I checked the first page, and recognised the myths of the private school lobby, with falsehood heaped upon sought-for privilege and demanded entitlements, coupled with beggar-thy-neighbour philosophy.

As for the 'public school' comment, why yes, I did attend a 'public school', but not in this nation-state, in another, formed long before the first white men even thought of coming here, and where Australian 'private' schools seek the inspiration for their Target-like derivative form, without any real comprehension of what they are, of what damage their existence has done, or why they should not be, any longer.

The boater, the blazer, the Oxford shoes, and yoiks tally-ho Rugbuggian nonsense, are all well known, sad to say, to me.

Welfare for the wealthy. Bloody disgraceful.

Below is a link showing the increase in tax payer money to private schools along with an, get this, an increase in fees! - so much for including lower income parents!

http://www.adogs.info/Statistics%2016.htm

A store of information can be found at the following website:

http://www.adogs.info/statistics.php

The Australian Council for the Defence of Government Schools -which has been following the shift from government support of public schools from as early as the McMahon government to date.

"Non-government schools receive substantial capital grants and land grants from government. And, when government school assets are sold off, the proceeds are returned to consolidated revenue, unlike non-government schools, for which the proceeds of asset sales are reinvested.

On an honest comparison, then, government school expenditure per student in 2008 was $496 less than Catholic schools, $5246 less than independent schools and $2415 less than all private schools.Based on a government school population of 2.3 million, bringing government school resources up to the average for all private schools would require an extra $5.5 billion a year.

But, for a given standard, government schools are more expensive to run. They must provide a school for all comers and in all places. They can't cherry-pick the market. This alone suggests that funding benchmarks should set a premium for government schools.The SES formula is a flawed measure of disadvantage because it is based on areas rather than families. But based on 2006 census data and the 2010 Productivity Commission report on government services, government schools - which take a disproportionate number of disadvantaged students - should receive 1.8 times the per capita funding of private schools, according to calculations by Trevor Cobbold, who maintains the Save Our Schools website. On this basis, Commonwealth funding for government schools should be increased $28.7 billion a year."