The solution to the problem is simple, 'independent schools' shouldn't receive any taxpayers' funds whatsoever, then they would be truly independent.

Public funding of private schools is a pernicious form of middle class welfare.

Dear mac,

You wrote what I was going to write.

I agree with the above - no funding for private OR state schools. Instead, all parents receive a voucheer for the full amount of education cost per student in the state system. They are then free to use them at any school.

Since the massive expenditure on Building the Education Revolution appears to have had no benefit in educational terms, all school infrastructure is to be funded by the local schools, who are best placed to determine their needs.

And since there appears to be no measurable educational benefit in the reduced class sizes and increased resources supplied over the last three decades, all class sizes are to be increased (sacking the lowest performing 5% of teachers) and the savings in teacher salaries used to reward the better teachers among those remaining.

Staff development is to be restructured, with current crew of blithering politically correct idiots sacked, and best-practice teacher trainers imported from nations which have an improving educational performance.

Well said ChrisPer, my only disagreement is with the percentage of the lowest performing teachers to be got rid of. At least 10% of the current teaches are no more use than tits on a bull, & should be sacked regardless.

As for funding, if you are going to expect taxpayers to fund education, every child has an equal right to a share of the spending, & should be funded equally. My only contact with private schools has been when I or my kids played sport against/with them, but I don't see that as a reason to discriminate against the kids attending them.

Time for the socialists to stop the politics of envy, & start applying some of the equity they are always screaming about, but never practicing.

Your concerns about funding are well founded Stephen. The issue of concern, touched on in your article, that will affect all schools, should the NCOA's desire for responsibility for spending and policy in education come to fruition, would be a loss of the Australian Government's capacity to drive national consistency and innovation in schooling policy.

When Brendan Nelson was federal education minister he introduced the Values Education program despite significant opposition from the states and territories. By the time the program ended I don't think anyone would have been able to say that it was not successful in bringing a new dimension to the way we look at schooling. Similarly, in the early days there was great resistance among the states and territories to the notion of a national curriculum.

It is important that the Australian Government's capacity to drive a national vision for education is not diminished in pursuit of 'a doctrinaire approach' to federalism.

I was about to write the same, but ChrisPer was ahead of me, so I second him!

wages of teachers keep going up while standards of education fall. Anyone see the ferals (encouraged by education union no doubt) on Q&A. To think these ones are teaching or want to teach kids. Unbelievable! Failed secular system funding should be dumped.

I'd not want to go as far as mac, given the sheer numbers educated in so-called private schools!
But I would like to see all education linked to a very fair means test, say that kicked in at $80,000.00 per, with all government assistance exhausting at incomes above $150,000.00!
Now if that's too big a burden, then perhaps they could downsize the property, and with it, the mortgage?
Try managing with just one car and or public transport!
There's plenty carrying all their own weight, yet managing on just an average income!
The age of entitlement, (middle class welfare) is well and truly over?
Try walking to school, around five kilometres, on a gravel road, in bare feet, on a cold and frosty morning!
And then be obliged to share dogeared text books, just to get a very basic education!
Even then, someone somewhere paid for it!
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty,

I wasn't suggesting an immediate cessation of public funding for private schools, rather a gradual phasing out, which should give time for adjustment, 10 years perhaps?

I'm sure that the privatisation of 'independent schools' isn't on the Abbott government's agenda.

I'm with rhosty on his last post. In my book no-one should be let loose in a class full of kids ready & eager to learn without having done 2 years of national service. How can they teach without knowledge & even less wisdom ?
If teachers were to get paid by evidence of productivity most of them would starve.
I know teachers who agree with me there.

Mac, nowhere in my post did I suggest an immediate cessation of school funding, just a very fair means test!
Secondly, many of the schools with their hands out are already privatized, and more than adequately funded!
I'm not trying to suggest that we are all somehow equal, but as sure as hell deserve an equal start, and one which allows the real cream to rise to the top, rather than just advantaged, spoiled brats, who think they are somehow actually entitled to UNEARNED advantage.
And I agree, we should bring back national service, and the conscientious objectors, can do their share as the new green army, albeit, at a much more basic rate of pay, or perhaps just working for the dole.
Maybe then, we would see who were the real conscientious objectors were and who were just the rich bludgers, expecting as always, others to do all the sacrificing, or carry the load!
At the start of WW1, virtually all the British officers came from very privileged backgrounds, and so, fought as if flesh and bone were just expendable items or their tin soldiers.
Fortunately for the average enlisted grunt, war has a way from separating the wheat from the chaff; and by the end of the war, what was being sacrificed was tanks and planes, rather than millions of men!
And with that change, forced an armistice on the aggressor nations! Even so, the mindset of the privileged has not changed much, nor do they seem brighter!
It's time we stopped catering to their whim and caprice, and just rewarded real merit, rather than unearned privilege, as demonstrated in the above example; and or, second or third best results or outcomes!
Rhrosty.

I can remember reading an article, that reported the man with the highest recorded IQ, was working on the back of a garbage truck.
I don't know why, perhaps he just liked it better than the boardroom or the Parliament he should have been in!
Maybe he just didn't like all the revealed immaturity, or the sandpit squabbling, or being sent to the naughty boy's corner, by a matronly, controlling speaker or chair?
Look, we need to change a very deep mindset, so that our best and brightest are allowed to express their full potential. Or at the helm of the laboratory, the Surgical wing of a teaching hospital, at the head of industry and commerce, or populating the halls of political power!
A result, that can only ever benefit all Australians and all future outcomes for us all, rather than a few poverty conscious doom merchants, locked into patently flawed thinking, because they always have done things that way! (more tea anyone, lovely party?)
Or. i.e., have always lined their tin soldiers up, (Labor market) so that the more deserving, are the ones called on to make all the real sacrifices!?
Rhrosty.

Rhrosty,

"Mac, nowhere in my post did I suggest an immediate cessation of school funding, just a very fair means test!

I wasn't suggesting that you did, I got the impression that you thought that it was what I was advocating. Now that's out of the way, I think we agree on the corrosive effects of increasing social inequalities although we perhaps disagree on the solutions. My father thought that any society with millionaires couldn't possibly be equitable or democratic, now we have billionaires and our society is becoming less egalitarian.

BTW, I and my brother were educated at a private school, my working class parents wanted their sons to get collar and tie jobs, they thought that a private school education would 'open more doors'. I have no idea to what extent my education was subsidised by the taxpayers.

YEAH im concerned..RE private schools/too
as i understand..it..anyone..can donATE TAX FREe
then../get a tax deDUCTION/*PLUS SOME LEVEl OF GOVT GOES DOLLAR FOR DOLLar/ON GIFTS..like and of course its sort of double dipping..and is wrong

GOVT SHOULD ASUME..OVERALL RESponsabiity/accotding to levels
state=lower education[and tafe and prisons]
and fed higher ike law finance THE ARTS

KEP IT SIMPLE
HERE IS THE BUDGET/HOW MANY CANYOU EDUCATE/AMUSE FOR THAT PRICE

IE GOVT GIves each schoo the fu bUSGET FOR ALL STATE/COUNCIL FIUNDS /AND THE LOCAL SCHOOLS BEST CHOSE WHERE ITS SPENT..[SCHOOLS BECOME GOVT CENTERS

WE eecentralise
by centraising arround sef autonimous self running SELF SUFFICIENT SCHOOLS/interconnected/by the fed/al WE NEED CHANGE IS THE NUBERS OF 'STATES'[HOW MANY SCHOOLS OF ALL TYPES DO we have..OVER 10/STUDENTS?]

ANYHOW HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

I BE BACK

While we are on the subject of schooling, why don't we have some REAL reform.

A simple addition to the NSW Constitution Act, would, I believe, result in a huge improvement to all NSW schools.

The addition would be:

1. No person would be eligible to be commissioned as Premier unless they had children or grandchildren of school age, and they could only remain as Premier whilst the children/grandchildren remained of school age.

2. The Premier MUST, on pain of forfeiting their seat in Parliament, and becoming forever ineligible for re-election, cause their children/grandchildren to be educated in the NSW government school nominated by the Leader of the Opposition.

While we are talking about flying pigs, we may add an extra one for fun:

3. Any additional funding required for the implementation of the above items would come from the sale of politicians' assets.

I remember when some 40 years ago teachers & doctors were bleating if they had mor money allocated they could provide better services.
Well, meanwhile that funding has gone up 20fold yet service standars are declining.
The problem is that the money didn't & still doesn't go to improve services, it goes to improve employment perks & superannuations. Who cares about the service.

Pledurs:
If only politicians had to wear all the consequences of all their decisions, we would have the best education outcomes, the best public transport, the lowest energy costs, and the lowest possible tax impost!
And wouldn't that be a very welcome change from the conga line revelations, currently coming out of ICAC!
Perhaps we could get part of the way there, by subjecting politicians in campaign mode, to the occasional voluntary lie detector examination, always providing, that didn't cause an immediate melt down in the machine!
However, not all lie detectors need be connected to the individual, as thermal imaging reveals when the individual is telling pork pies, as does CAFRT! Which sees the tiny extremely rapid facial expression adjustments, the human eye can't detect!
And compulsive liars and Psychopaths can't escape as easily as they now do, given they are not able to control the heat that emanates from particular areas of the brain, when the individuals are telling pork pies. Even as they control their heartbeat and skin tension/perspiration responses!
And how much quicker could we process alleged asylum seekers, if we would just apply the completely impartial technology, rather than emotional humans, all too often swayed in their determinations, by academy award winning acting debuts? Perhaps these individuals should be in parliament, where they should feel completely at home?
And this space age technology, can be applied completely covertly, so the individual doesn't even know his or her responses are actually being truth tested.
As memory serves, only one pollie has volunteered to have him and his policies tested this way, and that was Andrew Bartlett, former Queensland democrat Senator?
Rhrosty.

that was Andrew Bartlett, former Queensland democrat Senator?
Rhrosty,
Was he sober when he made that statement ? I wonder how truthful his answer would be if we asked him if he thought he was worthy of what he is getting out of us.