The fact remains that until the Government can improve conditions at public high schools in particular, any parent who is not situated near one of the rare good public schools, and who can afford it, will send their kids to a private school.

Religious classes once a week are a small price to pay for a better education, smaller classes, more pleasant environment, and more effective disciplinary measures that are hallmarks of a private school education.

If I had kids again in the right age group I would not hesitate to send them to a private school again.

The truthful fact remains that very disruptive kids (usually having come from disruptive homes) are not tolerated at private schools, so anyone who wants a more productive education for their child will try to get them into a private school.

Until the Government schools address the behaviour problems endemic in public schools, nothing will change.

Yet, throughout Queensland, more often than not the Education Act—the law—is being ignored. Children of undisclosed faith or lack of faith are being placed in Christian Religious Instruction—often nothing other than evangelical Christian worship—as the ‘default option’. <<

Source: http://www.thefourthr.info/

Hi Severin, I can see the odd validated point you raise prior to this one and in part, am able to understand your annoyance relating to how you view your taxes being wasted on the private education system's children. For instance, there are areas whereby my taxes have been distributed into projects/things that may not, on the surface, appear to benefit my children or self.

I think outside the square, and realise that on many occasions, our taxes are spent on quite a few positive projects and ventures benefiting our school children, who are our future 'doctors, nurses, paramedics, teachers, law enforcement officers, tradespeople/all employed Australians, regardless of whether or not students are educated within the public system or private systems.

The source Salecich, J., 2001. Chaplaincy in Queensland State Schools: An Investigation. Thesis, (PHD). University of Queensland was conducted 9 or 10 years ago Severin. Further it was a Thesis from one individual not a study that was conclusive/factual.

Are there any recent studies into claims that students have been unlawfully receiving religious instruction within public schools, without their parents' prior consent over the past 7 years? I ask for a few reasons.

My Daughter was educated in the public system, and never received religious instruction during her educational years.

However, I strongly disagree that any educational system should be giving religious instruction to students without prior consent of their parents. It goes without saying, apart from being unlawful for obvious reasons, that most people undoubtedly are able to fathom [brainwashing kids with certain types of religious instruction and abusing both the rights of parents and their children], there would exist, in future, the concerns of various types of religious instructions, in addition to Christian based faiths, inflicted upon young children ie young,innocent victims.

Severin,

You must be kidding! ADOGS is an organisation that specifically tries to undermine the funding of independent schools by quoting selective excised statistics, and unbiased sources such as the unions.

It would be like quoting a Catholic organisation as an unbiased source on abortion.

The majority of independent funding is federal, the majority of public school funding is state based. If you quote only federal funding, then surprise surprise, the independent schools get more.

There are site including government sites that supply information and analysis on funding, and if you look at the total funding, there is no dispute that the funding per pupil is lower at independent schools.

Amicus

"These articles about the haves and have-nots bring out all the poisonous envy we see all the time from the likes of the unions and ALP .. class warfare"

What is illegitimate about a discussion about the distribution of income and opportunity? What is wrong with class politics? When was the last time that you heard an ALP figure talking about the workers?

I just love the class aspect of this issue.

Hear Hear Severin.
suzeonline, clearly you want what's best for your children, as all decent parents do.
Isn't Democracy -and the concepts of equality and egality- a weird and wonderful thing?
I for one find it very easy to say "I am no better than anyone else, and no one else is better than me". It's very much harder to say "and my child is no better (or more deserving) than any other child..."
Like you, I want the very best world for my children. I want them to have a world of maximum liberty, recognising that Liberty, like all other precious resources, is strictly limited. The more liberty one person takes, the less there is for everyone else.
The most 'liberated' people on the planet are sociopaths. They are free to do whatever they want, to whomever they want, with absolute disregard for anyone's freedom but their own.
In wanting the best for our children, we as parents have to decide whether this is best accomplished by getting the best for all children, or giving our own children the best, in comparison to other children.
After all, where would the fun be in being rich, if no one was poor?
As long as wealthy parents can opt out of the system, nothing will change.
BTW, as I recall when I was at (public) school in the Mountains, Blue Mountains Grammar had a lot of kids who had been expelled from other schools.
Isn't that more in keeping with our 'user pays' or 'do the crime, do the time' system?
If parents can't or won't control their children or teach them proper respect, why not make them pay for their children's education?

We're all getting off the topic.

The main point of the article is that private schools want all the governmnet money without any of that pesky government interference.

One glaring example of this is being able to reject students based on their behaviour, something governmnet schools aren't allowed to do. I think it's only fair if you want governmnet money, you are no longer 'private', so you must lose some of your autonomy.

Besides, there is plenty of rich private schools with a strong Christian ethic that will be happy to fund the less well off catholic schools. I've heard Christians are very charitable, and if governmnet funding is reduced, I've got no doubt the rich Catholic schools will donate lots of money to the poor ones to keep them afloat.

So, there's the solution. If you are happy to accept more regulation, you can have more money. If you want private schools to actually BE private, well, you can rely on your charitable brethren.