School funding needs to be a means tested education endowment only that then allows parents to pick the best school for their kids And based on published results.

And could dry up if a poor attendance record/massaged report card results are in evidence, minus bonafide extenuating circumstances. And just that much incorporating as much as a 30% saving and state govts howling the house down, when say half? the GST is withheld for that exclusive purpose?

The other half distributed on a pro rata basis to hospitals and direct health care funding, minus the usual state government skimming for alleged admin costs fees and charges.

And possibly includes another 30 reduction in alleged public health care costs?
Alan B.

By definition we know that 49% of teachers are below average performers. The first thing we should do is dismiss half of these poor teachers, the lowest performing half of course. Classes should be increased to 1950s sizes, when we were achieving top results.

We should then go back to the system we had in the 40/50s, with inspectors & ranking of teachers. The lowest ranked 5% to be dismissed every year.

We should then revert to the syllabus & teaching methods employed in the 50s. I know my contemporaries & I received a much better education than did my kids 10 years ago.

We could try paying just the top 15% of achieving teachers a 20% bonus, for as long as they continue to achieve the top results.

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Hasbeen, Have you been in a school recently and seen what schools do?
It seems not. Do us all a favour and refrain from commenting on areas of personal ignorance.

Ma be has been have you ever been to school. This bloke lives in the time of Bango Patterson. With a thumb nail dipped in tar.

My wife & I established, & then ran for 15 years until very recently the school textbook hire scheme for the local high school, [1700 students], for the P&C association. My wife averaged 24 hours a week at the school doing this, & I did about 15 hours a week working on it.

This scheme saves the average parent about $200 a year, & injected $170,000 a year of P&C funds thus generated into the school.

We have seen the good, the bad, & the ugly, & the just plain lazy teachers. I have had to phone some heads of departments a dozen times to try to get them to give us their departments text book, & class set requirements for the next year, to enable us to order at best prices, then cover, prepare & catalogue these books ready for the next school year.

I can assure we, & the half a dozen helpers who repaired last years books, ready for reissue next year put in more hours of work than about 30% of the paid staff at that school.

So pull your head in Brian of Buderim & doog. You have no idea of what you are talking about, & probably never will. We have a much closer association with our local school than most of the teachers who have ever been there. By the way, which school do you or your offspring teach at. Bet it's a beauty.

David Robertson states:

"The complexities of schools funding, involving both the Federal and State Governments, and parental contributions in the case of independent schools, as well as the historical funding arrangements for different sectors and states and territories are the key blockages to moving to a funding model that is transparent and equitable and has broad community acceptance."

The main blockage requiring removal is the historic injustice done to Catholic schools at Federation in respect of which, after a century of going it alone and then gaining part-funding from the Commonwealth, they succeeded in opening the funding gates to a new range of non-government schools with a much less compelling case for public funding. The logic of David's argument suggests that full public-funding of Catholic and similar other systemic schools be reintroduced forthwith as part of the funding review that he recommends, with the funding tap for well-off schools, whether Catholic or otherwise, turned off in the name of proper, effective and justice-related needs-based funding.

David also writes: "Federal Schools Minister, Senator Simon Birmingham, has rightly highlighted a number of anomalies in current funding arrangements for States and Territories and schools across the different sectors resulting from the implementation of "Gonski". These need to be addressed over time. However, the reality is that no schools funding model can start from a clean sheet; historical arrangements need to be considered and accounted for."

This reinforces my point about keeping faith and authenticity with historical arrangements, not simply pertaining to the way in which Australian schools were funded prior to Federation but also with models that continue to work well in other countries, such as in Europe and the British Isles, Canada and NZ. In all those polities Catholic and Protestant systemic schools are fully publicly-funded as part of the public provision and cultural transmission of education. This gives parents enormous school choice without having to dip into their pockets to pay fees. All other private schools in the above polities do NOT receive any public funding and, accordingly, should be encouraged towards sustainability based on their private capacity to raise fees.

Hi Hasbeen,
Your work as an ancillary or volunteer is doubtless appreciated by the school. The fact that you have had 15 years outside the classroom does back up what I was saying: staff meetings, faculty meetings, professional development days, professional interactions between members of staff, staff dealing with 'helicopter' parents have passed you by.
The mere fact that I have spent large amounts of time in numbers of hospitals does not qualify me to judge the work of doctors or nurses, the fact that I know someone who is a paramedic does not give me the knowledge to assess her work.

I think the same thing applies to you: you've been in the one school for years doing a valuable job. This does not give you the right to make impossible statements about all schools and all teachers.

Go away and say no more.

I think schools should be funded on the basis of need with the goal of having equality of outcome. I have seen a tremendous disparity of resources across the range of schools I have worked in: goverment, catholic systemic and truly independent schools.

No school should ever have to mark broken boards on a verandah so that those boards are not trodden on: no school should ever be so flush that it can build an Olympic swimming pool and a gymnasium with underground small bore rifle range. No school should ever be so flush that it can buy a closed rural primary school and make that a "Timbertops" while ever there are government schools, without double glazing,on main roads where teaching is difficult because of road noise.

Government schools should be well funded so that they can match the local Catholic and Independent schools in teacher salaries, facilities and equipment. Government school Headmasters should have the right to expel defiant, aggressive or unruly students (after one warning?) and those Headmasters should also have the right to fire indolent and poor teachers (after one warning?).

Let us go back to the future and return to the Karmel Commission of Whitlam's time. Let us shake the rich schools off the public teat so that more money is available for under-funded government and Catholic systematic schools.

Then, and only then, will our results in PISA, TIMSS, and PIRLS really reflect the true ability of all Australian students!