Christians schools are really not all that different from Muslim schools. Both indoctrinate and brainwash children from an early age.

These children have no capacity to question, reflect and criticise what they are being told and have faith that they're being told the truth. Not only that they are taught about eternal punishment and the consequences of not believing. This shock factor and fear based teaching ensures that as their ego develops, it encloses around this core false, belief implanted by strangers.

In my real world guise I have just finished a radio interview looking at the deceitful and dishonet AEU campaign over funding of schools, so I thiought a few facts might be helpful.

To understand the issue of school funding, it is important consider the combined funds from both the Australian Government and the State or Territory governments. Each level of government contributes funds to schools with the State and Territory governments having the major financial responsibility for their own state schools, while the Australian Government is the primary source of public funds for Catholic and Independent schools.

Overall, state schools receive considerably more public money than Catholic and Independent schools. There are 2.2 million students who attend state schools and they receive $22.7 billion of public funding. There are 1.1 million students who attend Catholic and Independent schools and they receive a total of $7.6 billion of public funding.

In other words, state schools enrol 68% of students and receive75% of total public funding for schools, while Catholic and Independent schools enrol 32% of students and receive 25% of total public funding.

Under the Australian Constitution, state schools are the responsibility of State and Territory governments. The State and Territory governments own the state schools, manage them and provide about 88% of their public funding. The Australian Government is a significant contributor to state schools. Australian Government funding has risen by an estimated 93% since 1996. Inflation over this period was about 22% and enrolments have been steady.

The 2005 Australian Government Budget delivered an estimated8% increase to state schools including a 35% increase in funding for school buildings and maintenance. Meanwhile, the average State and Territory government budget increase to their own schools was only 3.9%.

The Australian Government funds non-government schools according to a formula which measures the socio-economic status of the communities they serve.

Schools which draw students from the neediest communities receive from the Australian Government 70% of the cost of educating a student in a state school. Schools serving the wealthiest communities receive about 13.7% of that cost.

(cont)
The States and Territories also provide some assistance to Catholic and Independent schools. The formulae vary from state to state, but their contribution is small relative to the Australian Government’s.

If all the students who currently attend Catholic and Independent schools enrolled in state schools, then taxpayers would need to contribute an additional $3 to $4 billion a year.

The Australian Government’s funding formula for Catholic and Independent schools does not take into account the size of a school’s fees or a school’s existing asset base because such an approach would penalise parents for spending their own money on
their child’s education.

The Australian Government believes that every parent, having paid their taxes, deserves some level of public assistance to support the education of their child, regardless of which school their child attends.

The higher fee schools (sometimes referred to as the former Category 1 schools) are funded according to the same formula that determines the funding for all non-government schools. Because the communities they serve tend to be wealthier on average, the higher fee schools receive less money per student from the Australian Government.

A student attending one of the 59 higher fee schools attracts about 1/4 of the public money received by a student attending a state school. In some cases it is as little as 1/7 but all students receive some support.

It is sometimes said that Catholic and Independent schools only serve wealthy families. This is incorrect. For example, 2001 Census data shows that one in fi ve students from families earning less than $20,800 per year attend Catholic or Independent schools.

Half of all parents with children at Catholic and Independent schools pay less than $1,857 per annum in fees per child (2003 data). In comparison, 49% of students from families earning more than $104,000 per year attend state schools. Nearly all the growth in Catholic and Independent schools has been in low fee schools.

Simon Templar has included ONLY Catholic and Independent schools in his initial thread, and conveniently obscured the mention of Federal Government funding towards other private schools until the conclusion of his second thread, aiming to overwhelm and mislead readers with obfuscated percentages in between. Were you hoping the reader would give up before then young Simon?

Simon Templar further states that ‘… State and Territory Governments … provide about 88% of public funding’, but fails to inform of the inadequate initial funding provided to the States by the Federal Government OR that funding is based on a measure of spending by State and Territory Governments towards public schools using what is referred to as an Average Government School Recurrent Cost Index (AGSRCI). The problem with this is that the AGSRCI is determined by the Federal Government and NOT the State and Territory Governments. The Federal Government artificially depresses the State and Territory Government contributions to minimise their own frugal funding. They then decrease or increase their contributions accordingly to this depressed figure.

Simon Templar further fails to mention that there are strong stipulations attached to how the State and Territory Governments are to use the Federal contributions in the first place. Although the Federal Government are vocal in asserting that States and Territories are responsible for public schools, they do not allow them autonomy in deciding how that funding is best used. Therefore, funding can be whittled away on some Government minister’s personal agenda, rather than used where the principal knows it will best serve the school community. The Federal Government dictate to the schools that you must spend this money on 'success for boys', and that your teachers must sit through a 'professional development' seminar, run by 'non-professionals', who happen to be the mates of minister so-and-so.

The Federal Government’s ‘creative accounting’ practices for funding public schools illustrates an all-too-common theme of the Government to conceal their intention to provide as minimal funding as possible, while claiming the opposite.

I realise that this will seem a crude a summary of where we stand on this debate. We live in a country that claims be secular in governance and institutions. We have the predominant religion which is christianity claiming to be exclusive in nature, establishing schools that are inclusive by operation.
It looks like the riddle of the sphinx to me!

If reading the above post; please read exclusive when reading inclusive and vice versa - it may make more sense. I don't think the issue is about christians and their schools, so much as the issue of secularity. If we are a secular state, we need to confirm that in our institutions and education is one of the most important apart from the judicial system. The big issue now is are we a secular state within which multiculturalism operates or are we a multicultural state. If we are a multicultural state; then how do we reflect that in our government and institutions? Personally, I think that a secular state as a structure for a multi cultural society, is our best option. However, if we take that road we will have to be clear about our secularity in government and institutions. In relation to this thread, it means that we as a state only support a secular education in our education system. We would certainly, provide cultural education for all cultures within our curricullum but our schools must reflect our secular status. For this to work, all cultures must agree to it including christian.

In other words, if a christian / muslim / hindu community wish's to establish their own school, it firstly will have to apply the secular model and give no more time to religious / cultural teaching than a secular school and will not recieve assistance from the secular state.