Chris C - re 'Perhaps Scott Prasser could say how the “education package … fails tests of transparency, fairness, financial sustainability and effectiveness in promoting excellent educational outcomes” rather than just claiming that it does.'

4. Effectiveness - In my opinion this criterion should never have actually been included in the Terms of Reference for the funding review. The effectiveness of funding is determined by how it is spent, not how it is allocated. There is very little evidence that funding architecture can influence incentives to achieve outcomes, except possibly in the form of the existing National Partnership arrangements if they were run in a more up-front manner by the Australian Government, rationalised and associated with less red tape. For much more information on why more money does not always equal better learning outcomes, refer to W. Norton Grubb's wonderful book 'The Money Myth' : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norton-grubb/more-than-money-needed-to_b_205779.html.

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your very timely article.

There is only one pot of money.

The question is, how to divide it ?

At the same time as $3 billion was ripped out of the tertiary sector to fund schools, $3 billion extra spending was announced for road infrastructure investment in NSW, due to population growth.

The reality check is that we are selling assets on a massive scale, borrowing on a massive scale , collapsing university funding and sacking scientists...and we still can't provide for our existing population .

Time to stablise our population growth rate of an extra 1.2 million people every 3 years .

"Better not Bigger" and become a role model for the rest of the world, which must stablise rapidly , in order to stop the destruction of the
environment and design out poverty.

No more wishful thinking and worse , lies. Vote for the Stable Population Party (google) in the Senate and selected lower house seats and send a message .

Catholics are waking-up to the growth stupidity . For example your "Paul Collins" is a saint on this one .

Best,

Ralph

Not bazaar Scott, it should read bizarre.

Car repairs and servicing don’t get better because of the garage or the tools; it’s because of better trained mechanics. Sure the facilities help but are never a primary cause.

Until and unless we get better trained teachers we won’t get better education outcomes.

It’s not rocket science, and the solution is very cheap. Just set aside the Uni degrees for a moment, put teachers through a “student” competency test, then make decisions about funding priorities.

The reason we won’t do this is because we already know the answer. Gonski is just a distraction from the main game, another Unicorn

Coalition says it will honour Gonski for the next four years.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-02/coalition-to-support-gonski-school-funding/4861102

Chris Pyne wasn't aware of that yesterday.

"Just yesterday, Opposition Education spokesman Christopher Pyne told ABC News 24 the Coalition would only honour the deal for one year.

"What we will do is give schools certainty for 2014 then undo the damage that the Government has done, by negotiation with the states and the territories [for a] new model for 2015," he said."

Ya gotta laugh.....

Another way to correct the headline, spindoc, is this...

"Gonski is just a bazaar"

‘Morning Poirot,

I’m sure the Pyne/Abbott double act will be good for a few laughs as the campaign develops, especially if the chuckles are valued as ammunition to snipe at the opposition.

It might however, be worth paying attention to the politics rather than the cheap giggles.

There is no doubt that should the coalition win a majority that all bets will be off. The excuse they desperately need for this has been gift wrapped and presented to them by the government in the form of record debt, deficit, shrinking employment/growth and a raft of unfunded future commitments.

Forget the string of failed policies; it is the economy that will bring the government down, just how far down is yet to be seen.

Abbott and the electorates know that whoever wins will have a monumental task to repair the economy, few believe the ALP can do it and many will be concerned that the coalition will “slash and burn” back to surplus. Either way or with either party, things will be very different after the election.

I don’t think the coalition will acknowledge this as Peter Garrett did with his pre-election quote. “When we get into power we will change all that”.

And guess what? Garrett was right, they did.

The more things change, the more they stay the same so don’t miss the main game Poirot