The state governments also support private schools.

State Aid to private schools was going great guns while Labor were in Federal control. State Labor governments (well, in Victoria at least) are quite supportive of private schools.

The theory that private schools save money is completely wrong and based on bodgy figures that leave out completely the (substantial) capital grants given to them.

Read for yourself at http://adogs.info/pr219.htm

My general observations have been that the public schools have normally better facilities than the private schools. The private schools often advertise their facilities in newspapers, but the public schools normally have those facilities already.

In fact I know of a public high school that has so many facilities that a student could go through 5 years at the school and only use some of the facilities, because there is so much at the school.

Facilities are not everything, but there could be an audit done to determine what a child needs to get a reasonable education, and then all schools are brought up to that standard, and that standard is paid for by the taxpayer.

If a parent wants to pay extra to go above the standard, then they can be entitled to do so.

In the past, Leslie Cannold has written that she is a “feminist teacher” and for her to misrepresent the truth would be par for the course.

A few comments on both the article and some of the previous comments.
It is entirely wrong to refer to 'Independent' schools. It is simply an untrue description because almost all of the 'Independent' schools are in fact religiously based. A far better and more accurate description is 'Sectarian' schools. They are most certainly NOT independent.
Irrespective of what school a student attends they all have to follow the same syllabi for all subjects and use the same assessment systems. Those are determined by the relevant Board of Study (under whatever name).
Research by ACER showed beyond any doubt whatsoever that the most important determinant of final Tertiary Entrance Score (again under whatever name) is performance in literacy and numeracy in Year 9. Numeracy having the greater influence in all States. Well behind that influence is Individual school. Far even behind that, a veritable also ran, is School type.
Of course if the writer has only one Public school she has no choice within the public sector. She must live in a most abnormal area if there are three sectarian schools and only one public school.
There are hidious problems in education in Australia and the cause of that problem is the various Boards of Study. It is beyond doubt that maths standards are way down especially up to year 10 exit. It is a scandal that Australian students do not even get into the first division in maths as measured by the internation TIMSS studies.
By the way it is impossible to judge 'how good' a school is by their TE scores. Until there is a valid 'Value added' system we can never know how 'good a job' a school has done.

I agree with Petal that the figures I quoted do not take into account the capital grants funding available to private schools. Private schools like Geelong Grammar and Melbourne Grammar are absolutely awash with money and are able to rebuild their South Yarra campuses. In contrast Melbourne Girls Grammar is falling apart at the seams.

If HRS visited the leafy eastern suburbs of Melbourne he would see that parents can chose Camberwell High School or Carey, Xavier, Trinity, Camberwell Grammar for their boys.

If HRS lived in Brighton his daughter could attend Brighton High School as featured in Summer Heights High, or Firbank see "We Could Be Heroes". The contrast between the facilities as shown on TV is quite sharp but the contrast is really sharp if you can tour both schools.

HRS needs to remember that Victoria got its first state secondary school in 1910, NSW established state high schools in 1884. The growth in Anglican schools in Victoria in 1910 was probably not repeated until 2000 when the Anglican Church started buying K12 independent schools.

The dishonesty in the figures quoted in this article are unbelievable. The cost to Government (the taxpayer) for a State student is approximately $10000 per year compared to approx $6500 per year for a private student. The Productivity Commission came up with these figures. Also as one closely related to a private school I can confirm this. The fact that many parents sacrifice and work second jobs because of the failed State system somehow creates a great deal of envy in others. The Greens and Democrats would be happy to bring everyone back to the lowest common level. Leslie's claim of victim status is typical of the socialist attitude. It is probably more the success of the philosophies of the private schools that irk Leslie more than her extremely dubious figures. Mr Rudd knows that as much as anyone.

Like Leslie I have little "choice" about where to send my daughter, though for different reasons. My daughter has Asperger's Syndrome and is currently in a support class with a maximum of 7 students. This will end next year when she returns to the mainstream, but we have been promised adequate classroom support. Time will tell on the follow-through on this, though before the support class she was receiving up to 15 hrs per week of teachers-aide assistance. She is in the public system.

I have talked to other parents with special needs kids. Most are in the public system but the few with experience in the private system are rarely satisfied with the level of support they have received. For most of them, the extra teaching resources in public schools outweigh any advantages that the private sysem may offer. Of course the stresses of having a kid with special needs mean that marriage breakdown and/or part-time work is pretty common, so most can't afford private schools anyway. So much for choice.

I don't know where you live HRS, but the large private school near me has a 50m heated indoor pool, performing arts centre, art gallery, manicured grounds, extensive sports fields etc etc (and fees of $16,000 per annum). The public school opposite hasn't even got a roof that keeps the rain out. Private affluence and public squalor.