Hi Scott,
Well unfortunately for you, you already convinced me to side with this Jane Caro woman in your first 2 sentences, and did little at all to drag me back until the end, at which point I realised that you were actually siding with her anyway.

I haven't read any of her work.

>>In the opening pages of her slim new book, public school advocate and fiction writer Jane Caro asserts that Australian governments have, for years, been "pumping money into private education while public schools struggle".

Caro further asserts that whatever money the government gives to public schools it is not enough, and whatever is given to private schools is obviously too much...<<

Then..

>>The real battle is not for public education for everyone, but for a quality education system that meets the needs of all.<<

- If there was a quality system for all why would parents choose private and pay extra?

It makes me think that private schools actually NEED public schools to be of poor quality so people open their wallets for the private school option.

The reason you won me over so quick is because just in my area we have a local public school, (Vienna Woods) that can't afford air-conditioning or to fix leaking classrooms and has merged classes because of it, and can't have tuckshops open all week because there's not enough volunteers to staff it and not enough funds to fix the crumbling classrooms either - they have to have fundraisers...

Meanwhile, 3klms down the road the local private school is bulldozing koala habitat to put in their 5th or 6th oval.

She's right, so up yours mate!

[Cont.]
Kids that go to public schools grow up to be renters and employees.
Kids that go to private schools grow up to be landlords and employers.
Parent's send their kids to private schools because they don't want heir kids to have to clean toilets and empty bins and someone has to.

Kids that go to public schools all their mates are getting into trouble.
Kids that go to private schools all their mates become well to do.

Kids at public schools get bullied more and nothings done and the good teachers are pilfered by the private schools who pay more and offer a better environment with better kids so the public schools end up the less-quality teachers.

The whole things a load of bs.

I could take the best teacher in every subject and every grade, build a web based teaching platform that would get better results than public schools ever got.

The system is shite, and perhaps deliberately because you need a lower class of failures to clean the toilets and empty the bins, and keep the local magistrate and midwife in a job when these kids finish school.

And another thing...

If the government were to give a single set amount per child to the school it's still unfair.
You want to pay so that your child has a higher standard of education. fine, let those can and wish to pay, pay.
Public schools students should get double the government funding per child so that the gap in outcomes can be reduced.
You strip too many kids away from the public school system and then they are barely viable, and can't even keep up with maintenance.

Tell me does your 9 year old go to a public school?
If they did I don't think you'd have written this.

Looking for some spending cuts?
Private schools would be a good place to start.

Pumping money into private schools. All the Socialists think that.

Without private schools, Australian education would collapse.

What we should be worried about is the pumping into public schools of far left dogma, hatred of the West, and sexual perversion.

Umm, not sure most who send kids to non-govt schools do it for religious reasons.

Certainly we sent our daughter to a Lutheran school for other reasons notably a hope for a better environment.

Our daughter tells us that most of her school friends, like her, are not religious and most of the teachers are the same.

Loing live secularism and hopefully govt schools can get better and safer.

Oh dear, Armchair critic
You havent read the book and I doubt you read Mr Prasser's article. Private schools get far less funding per child than government schools. Sadly this is something the author did not understand either. If private schools closed down, this country would be in dire straits. Thanks to Mr Prasser for his excellent summary of the real situation.

Hi NanP

I did read his article, and it was the first 2 sentenses that resonated with me, because I know that's the truth.

"If private schools closed down, this country would be in dire straits."
- I don't care what private schools do, those kids are going to get the best opportunities and their parents will always be there to pick them up when they fall down,
Mummy and Daddy will buy them a new BMW or Tesla on their 17th birthdays...
Then they'll go to University and the government will wipe their HECS debts to buy their loyalty.

I care about the kids the system fails who aren't going to make it.
I care about the kids sitting in double sized classes without air-conditioning because their classrooms are all had it, and they can't afford to fix them without numerous fundraisers, and good poor kids that have to go to school and where other screwed up kids threaten to stab them and slit their throats for years and the school does little about it.

If that was a reality for a kid you cared about,
the same as it HAS BEEN the reality of a kid I care about:
- Then you'd be saying the same things.

You seem to think its ok for one group to get the royal treatment,
While the others lives and futures are tossed aside or meant for the trash.

The reason people pay so much for their kids to go to private schools is because public schools don't even meet a basic standard.