Oh Devine how well you speak of the private education system. Yes this may be true but do they deal with wholesale disadvantaged students? .. NO.
Do they deal with students with behavioural problems?
Yes they just pass them on to the public system.
Do they deal with students in remote locations? No that is normally passed on to School of the Air (government run and funded). The list can go on. Yes private schools do occassionaly deliver a reasonable product but this is usually at a huge cost to the public system

I find it hard to decide which I find more unpleasant: the AEU who blame all difficulties on funding but accept no responsibility for their own behaviour on the one hand and the revolting article that sees perfection in the 'Independent' and Roman Catholic schools and utter incompetence in the public sector.

Both need to face the fact that totally irrespective of whether a student attends a public or a sectarian school the standards of mathematics (call it numeracy if it turns you on) and literacy are poor. In maths australian students are woefully weak compared to many countries. In algebra they are below the gobal average.

It follows that the biggest problems in Australian school education lies across ALL school types and must hence be caused by organisations that overarch the trumpery haggling between 'public' and 'private'. The problems lie in the area of syllabus, assessment and teacher 'training'. Subject syllabi determined by the various Boards of Study are weak or very weak across the whole nation. Being at a 'private' school will not save a student from that problem. Assessment systems vary from just adequate to totally insane (in Queensland. Teacher training fails to ensure that the future teachers know even the basics of the subjects they are going to teach, and there is almost NO hard nosed training on how to actually operate in the often harsh realities of the classroom.

This afternoon I shall tutor 3 students separately. Two from a 'private' school, one State. All in either Year 11 or 12. It will make no difference - all of them will be woefully weak in old Year 8 and 9 maths.
It's the syllabi, the syllabi and the syllabi. This childish haggle between public and 'private' is a haggle about a second order issue. As a consequence the really big overarching issues of syllabi standards, assessment structures and teacher training are being let of the hook.

Why don't we sell all schools so they can be all private schools, and real private schools with no govt; input.

The AEU argument has been nonsense since the day it was devised. It diverts attention from the AEU’s failure to obtain decent conditions for its own members in the various state and territory schools, which, to be fair, is a failure not only of the organisation itself but also of its members - teachers in general - who often whinge about their workload but are reluctant to do anything about it.

However, when the author says, “to simply continue to throw taxpayer dollars at public schooling systems that are grossly inefficient”, he is saying nonsense. I spent 33 years as a teacher. I never saw any money “thrown” at the system. It was better staffed in the 1980s than it is now, but the decline in staffing is due primarily to the last Liberal government of the state which removed 6,787 desperately needed full-time equivalent teachers between 1992 and 1998. The Labor government has rightly restored all the stolen primary teachers, but only one third of the missing secondary teachers.

Despite this, Victorian teachers voted for an EBA in 2004 that actually made their workloads worse. Then, in 2008, they voted for an EBA that restored the 300-minute instructional day, which, for complicated mathematical reasons, meant a reduction in the number of periods taught – yet, not one school I know of has actually implemented the required 300-minute instructional day, so teachers continue to teach too many periods when it is their own hands not to. Teachers are their own worst enemies. It is far easier to attack the federal government than to take the industrial and political action needed to restore the conditions stolen from them by retrospective legislation 18 years ago. It is even easier to attack the federal government than to demand in their own schools the implementation of the EBA they actually voted for in 2008.

Of course, if the parents of private school children had really wanted more state aid, they had the option of voting DLP 40 years ago. They did not do so. They live with the consequences.

"Ian Dalton is executive director of the Australian Parents Council, the national organisation that represents parents of students attending independent and Catholic schools."

I am SO sick of organisations with dishonest names. The so-called Australian Parents Council is no more representative of Australian parents in general than the Catholic's 'World Youth Day' was representative of world youth.

That rant off my chest, I would really like to see education funding provided on the basis of need, across the board.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11146#187159

Cambo, Yes, there are "private school ideologues". They are in the Red/green/getup/labour/socialist alliance. They in power, favour funding to Catholic private schools &/or other independent schools, that the Loony, Left, Ruling elite's children go to.

The LNP favour funding to private schools, that are considered to be more conservative, that their children go to.

Pot, meet Kettle.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11146#187169

Godo, read the above.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11146#187172

divine_msn, Great post, but wait, there's more, the problems with the public schools that you spoke of were deliberately created by the very same Communists, now bleating for more funding, with their anti family, pro child abuse & neglect policies.

Between 1945 & 1965 our education system was infinitely more successful than it is now. It has been "Progressively" failing ever since.

http://www.savethemales.ca/160303.html "school of darkness" Communist activity in teachers unions, academia, education bureaucrookracy.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11146#187176

Cambo, the LNP, or any non communists are "Raving Right Wing" ideologues but the Red/green/getup/labour/socialist Alliance are somehow, NOT "Loony, Left Wing" ideologues.

Please Explain?

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11146#187181

rational-debate, spot on mate.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=11146#187183

merv09, Agreed, but i think we need a protest organisation first. Bring back "Cracker Night" Friday, 05/11/2010.