If Catholic, parents want to provide their children with a Catholic education they should pay for it, not the taxpayers. The responsibility of the state is to provide secular education, not to subsidise religious institutions.

Lets not get this wrong it's nothing but middle/high class welfare that's all it is
In each of the areas that a Public school is located all money should be withdrawn from private schools. You wanna send your kid to some fancy school PAY FOR IT. Free school down the road, go school with the Poor Kids your's might learn something

Lets not get this wrong. Its horrible how private schools can show up the public schools with far less tax payer money.

If we just funded the student with a means tested allocation,(not the cash money) then allowed the parents to pick and chose the best schools, public or private, those attracting the student body/the funding, would prosper!

And if we restored regional autonomy and true Independence, schools, even so called public ones, could compete for student numbers and their own survival?

Which would likely force them to jettison the dross! Now that's what you call a public good!

Do we need to do more or anything else?
Rhrosty.

Competition is good and without it in Education we would, as the statesman Lee Kuan Yew suggested become the "white trash" of Asia (and agreed with by Hawke with his actions).

Sectarian hate by the Left is not a reason to further damage a great educational sector that is the Catholic.

Cobber the Hound,

You have made an assertion. You have provided no facts of reasoning to support it.

If you were consistent you would also oppose government funding of GPs via the Medicare rebate, government funding of pharmacists via the PBS, government funding of childcare centres via childcare rebates, government funding of road-building companies via contracts, etc.

Mac,

It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that al children have a decent education. It is open to the state to choose different means to that end. In Australia, as in many other developed countries, that includes funding of religious schools.

Aussieboy,

Not all non-government schools are fancy. In 2010-11, the average net recurrent income per student was $10,334 in a Catholic school, $11,523 in a government school and $14,456 in an independent school (http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/schoolfunding).

has been,

Some students cost more to educate than others because they have greater needs. Giving everyone the same is not just and would reduce the overall educational achievement of the nation.

Rhrosty,

Your system would socially segregate schools and lead to lower educational achievement. We will do better with the poor, the middle and the rich in the same school.

Victorian schools have had a large degree of autonomy since the late 1960s. The centralised education system is a myth. In any case, management autonomy does not improve student learning. Teaching autonomy does.

Runner,

Private schools do not show up government schools. Once you adjust for social class, the results are the same.