The fact is, public schools are no damn good, and any money poked at them by politicians, who judge their own "success" by tax payer money spent instead of results achieved, is completely wasted on the left wing, politically active teachers and unions running them.

Public education is just a sop to the masses who think universal free education is their right. Private education is in the business of education, attracting fees and whatever government money is available to provide the service. Like most things, the private sector does does education better.

Agree mostly with David F.

If all the available school funding were directed solely at the parents as a child education endowment linked to attendance outcomes!

And as such become taxable income for the benefit of the tax act; no child need miss out and parents would be free to pick and chose based solely on merit, rather than their means? And suitably higher in remote areas?

The states deprived of the administration fees carved out of this funding, would be left with little other choice than finally grant school districts total autonomy, which would finally allow empowered Principals to move the dross on; and that can only result in a better bang for the buck and as much as a 30% increase in coalface education outlays!?
Rhrosty.

It already costs thousands to put a kid through government schooling. Add the cost of private tutoring for subjects like math C & physics, subjects they do very poorly, & it becomes quite expensive.

Add even a couple of hundred dollars a year in fees & government schools will be closing in droves. People demand value for their money today, which is not something provided by the members of the teachers union.

runner,

I have already pointed out to you with specific facts and figures that there has not been a “massive increase” in funding over the last 20 years (http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=17166&page=0).

David (VK3AUU),

The idea for means-tested fees came most recently not from a “left-leaning public servant” but from the decidedly right-wing Centre of Independent Studies(http://www.theage.com.au/national/rich-families-should-have-to-pay-to-attend-public-schools-report-says-20140429-zr13z.html), but it has actually been around longer than that and was given a push by the Gonski report, as I explained above.

Rhrosty,

I don’t think you know how schools work, at least in Victoria. They gained curriculum autonomy from the late 1960s, locally elected school councils in the 1970s, locally selected principals in the 1980s, locally selected senior staff in the early 1990s, locally selected teachers in the mid 1990s and local budgetary control in the 2000s, not that any of this means Victoria performs better than the centralised NSW system in educational achievement. There is hardly any central administration left, so there is no 30 per cent available.

Dear runner,

A teacher may do his or her best to teach, but a student has to learn. I treasure my experiences in public school. It opened my mind to this big world we live in. It was not indoctrination or dogma at all. My old age would not be as interesting if my schooling had not opened my mind to the world of mathematics, literature, art, science and nature. I hope you will open your mind to this world of wonders we live in.

ttbn - Education, along with health and justice, IS a right that everyone should expect. I remember John Howard telling us that funding private schools gave Australians a bigger choice. It didn't give me and my kids more choice - we couldn't afford private schools. Are you saying that kids from rich families deserve a better education than those from poor families?