Severin <"Private Schools are being funded to the detriment of public schools - this is inequitable for a self-proclaimed egalitarian nation that Australia likes to believe it is."

We will have to agree to disagree on this!

The Government does not give as much public money to private schools do they? The Catholic school my daughter went to has many kids who go there whose parents don't have to pay fees at all, due to hardship, yet they still want their kids schooled there.

Aren't private schools meant to get most of their funds from larger school fees and their own organization's funds than from the Government?

Don't most of us contribute to the Government coffers by our taxes? Why then are you suggesting that children in public system schools are worse off?
Shouldn't all children in our country get the same amount of funding by our Government?
Are private school kids any less worthy because most of their parents (like us) scrimped and saved hard to pay the higher school fees?

Many parents don't care a damn where their kids go to school as long as they don't have to pay a cent towards it. Why attack those of us who are willing to pay for our kids to go to a school we care about?

Schools are a micro-chasm of the wider community. Are you suggesting we don't deserve a choice of where we send our kids to school?

At the end of the day, we all have choices in life. It may not always seem fair, but that is the way life is, and our kids have to learn that as well.

Severin,

To make it simple, try this model:

100 schools 50 public 50 independent.
public schools funded at $10 000 p.a.
independent schools funded at $7000 p.a.

Total state running costs $850 000 p.a.

Withdraw the subsidies - Result 40 independent schools close
Result 90 public schools and 10 private schools

Total state running costs $900 000 p.a.

Additional cost to the state, the purchase of land and construction of 40 schools.

Granted that the funding arrangements are more complex than the model, however, the overall result is the same. The schools that would close would be the independent schools in the less affluent areas, restricting private education to only the wealthy.

Having trawled through the insubstantial links on ADOGS, it appears to me to be a one man band. At least it has cleaned its act up a bit and is not so fraught with spelling and other errors. However, its content remains cut and paste from various left wing green or union sources and contains little to no analysis of its own.

I have also seen websites "proving" that 9/11 was manufactured. Until I see a complete analysis attempted by this website rather than echoing excised snippets, I cannot take it seriously.

Try:

http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PolicyBriefs_Dowling07.pdf

Independent schools get about 22% of student funding, but educate about 33% of the pupils.

SM

What part of 'Private-for-Profit schools are not entitled to government funding be it Federal or state', don't you get? All you have done is try to denigrate an organisation which presents how government funding for schools is distributed - else no-one would know.

I have made a case in favour of not-for-profit private schools in my previous posts. The only schools I am excluding are those which make a profit from fees and government subsidy for what results in marginally little return. By 'return' I mean that public school educated children go on to excel in universities and careers, despite all the 'bells and whistles' our government provides through subsidising private schools.

State Governments would be advantaged, as they would only need to aid State Schools - I do believe this is why they are called State Schools.

Like many private industries, private schools are in fact in receipt of government welfare at the expense of the tax payer.

I don't mind my taxes going to organisations which benefit the greater good, such as NGO's, transition to self sufficient technology, the EPA and much more which does not have a direct impact on me.

For reasons which should be obvious even to you, I, as do many others, object to our tax dollars being used to support private enterprise.

Suzeonline

While I frequently find myself in agreement with you, this is the exception, I guess. I am on a low income, yet my taxes help your choice in private education for your children - that hurts.

'Withdraw the subsidies - Result 40 independent schools close'

That's a massive assumption. They can up their fees, and 10-20% of the student base who cant or don't want to afford it may leave. Or else they'll just scrimp and save more. The school needn't close. As Suze says, those parents are happy to scrimp and save as they believe they are getting value for money and they like the status private schools bring to them.

If they're religious schools under threat, naturally richer religious schools of the same denomination will step in to support them to save them from closing too.

Anyway, the government should provide an education for all, and if it costs more, so be it. That's what taxes are for.

Currently the governmnet is deliberately under-funding public schools in the hope even more parents will get jack of it and take their kids out, giving the government the chance to spend even less.

If they do it badly for long enough, people will expect public schools to be only for the very dregs of society. Then our taxes will be lower, and we'll all be happy with paying 20K a year for what the governmnet should provide, and spend our time feeling high and mighty that we're 'good parents' who 'are willing to pay for our kids to go to a school we care about' by 'scrimping and saving'.

If the poor people of the world cant be bothered scrimping and saving 20k a year for their kids education, they can send them to the ghetto public schools.

What we need is a society where both parents work as much as possible, rarely see their kids, and are stressed out and unhappy in order for kids to know their parents cared enough to send them to a prestigious private school.

"At the end of the day, we all have choices in life. It may not always seem fair, but that is the way life is, and our kids have to learn that as well."

Is this the attitude Christian schools are teaching these days?

The Supreme Court of the United States in 1952 determined that segregation by race is inherently unequal. Since then there have been vast changes in the United States. I visit Tidewater Virginia occasionally since my son is a professor at William and Mary. That area has undergone tremendous changes since WW2. After the war there was real apartheid. Most restaurants and hotels would not let black people in. Those that did were for blacks only. Schools were segregated by race. When public facilities were first desegregated whites would cluster together and blacks would cluster together. Now one can see people of different races mingling and having a good time together.

It has cost money. Black schools in general had inferior facilities. Integration had great opposition since bigoted people did not want their children mixing with children of another colour. Horrors! They might even get friendly and marry them. I don’t see that segregation by religion is essentially different.

I am from the United States and was shocked when I came here to find that non-public schools are funded by taxpayers. It is illegal in the US. Private schools are private. If parents want to send their children to a private school run by a religious group that should be their right, but I see no reason taxpayers should fund it.

Separation of children by religion is inherently unequal. It is unnecessary for education or the promotion of religion. The United States is a more religious country than Australia. If the public school system represents a broader range of children their parents will be an effective lobby for better public school funding. Let religious education in the schools be religious education, not indoctrination where religious opinion is taught as truth. Let students learn about the different beliefs that people have. They can be indoctrinated in church, synagogue, mosque or temple if parents want it.

In Australia there are school systems for Muslims, another for Jews, another for Catholics etc. Go to school together, work together, live together for a better Australia.