In the opinion of a growing number of people, the States do not have the answers, and that State / public Schools are not the best model of education. The States need to release their controls and allow and support parents and their Student child/ren to make choices through inquiry, based on accurate information from a range of different education providers and models. People make choices and decsions all the time, so it shouldn't be so difficult. This will not lead to the perfect matching of parents, students and schools, but they then also have the choice to withdraw and find a more suitable School. State Schools obviously don't provide a perfect match - they simply don't fill the needs of all people, their aspirations, principles and values, and people now look elsewhere and leave. I would suggest that encourages learning, development and progress within the sector, even perhaps at the expense of some contractions. Vouchers are likely to empower people to enable the exercise of choice. However, it can only happen with States releasing some of their legislative and bureaucratic stranglehold on non-State Schools.

Funding by the States favours State / public Schools. Yet, the States have responsibility for both State and private Schools. State Schools are their prime responsibility for funding, resourcing and investing capital. I wonder why the education industry is treated so differently than companies in other sectors so that truth in advertising and fair trade practices, especially with regard to promises, are not supervised independently of government, by the ACCC. In other sectors, action is taken to dissuade monopolistic practices. State Governments control both State Schools and their only competitors, private Schools. State Ministers have the final decision-making power, and their biases prevail. There are few other sectors where this happens. National Competition Policy was aimed at increasing competition and dealing with situations where governments favoured state run institutions over private providers. Yet, State governments have continued to reduce the singularity, identity and potential of private Schools through restrictive legislation, clearly aimed at turning the tide back in favour of State Schools.

Regards, Derek Sheppard

School vouchers have nothing to do with the free market and competition, and neither does public education, for that matter.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/091800-103.htm

I have argued and explored this point several times at:

petaldavid.blogspot.com

There are alot of private schools out ther which need funding by the government, I myself have been in private schooling all my life think there is most definatly a division in the quality of education in the public system compared to private.
Recently my sisters were changed from private to public and the differance is unbeleivable. On my sisters first day her hair was pulled and she said that the other children were extremely rough and swore alot (year 4 students). The difference between quality of teaching in noticable aswell, the teachers at public schools see bullying, give the child a slap on the wrist and no lesson is learnt. (Maybe a result of class sizes).
Private schools pay good teachers good money to provide each child with an individual education, Im not at all critising public schools and saying there bad but I beleive there is alot if work which needs to be done.
I think there should be a system put in place where the private school looking for funding from the government, should be assesed and there should be an eligabitlity "test" put in place. This will ensure that funding needed for public schools is still there and only private schools in need of funding will get it.
In the end, there is a difference and now days your paying for an education.