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The Forum > Article Comments > Choice is all very well, but not at the expense of education > Comments

Choice is all very well, but not at the expense of education : Comments

By Irfan Yusuf, published 25/3/2008

The Government has thrown money at community-based schools managed by devout and sincere people with little or no educational credentials or experience.

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My humble apologies Billie!

I assumed you would be able to interpret the information for yourself.But since you seem to be having trouble with the maths I’ll explain it for you in a little more detail.

Table 1 shows that total funding to government schools was $18850m and total funding to private schools was $10933m.The total funding to private schools,however,includes ‘private funding’ (which means school fees paid by parents directly to the school) of $4701m. In order to determine the total GOVERNMENT contribution to private schools you have to subtract the private funding component ($4701m) from the total funding ($10933m).Doing that substraction you get $6232m as the total government funding to private schools.

Table 2 shows total‘per student’funding which is $8361 for government schools and $10275 for private schools BUT the $10275 includes school fees paid by parents directly to the school.In order to ascertain the 'per student' contribution to private schools by government you need to take the $6232m which we calculated in the previous paragraph as the total GOVERNMENT funding to private schools and divide this by the total number of students in private schools(1063988).The result of this division is $5857.So the GOVERNMENT contribution to private schools is $5857 (per student).Reiterating, just to be perfectly clear,the GOVERNMENT paid $8361 for each student at a government school and $5857 for each student at a private school.That’s $2504 MORE for students at government schools.

The reason I make this point is that these numbers clearly illustrate that GOVERNMENT is NOT spending more money on private schools than government schools,either in total OR per student. Any suggestion that the government is spending more money on private schools than on state schools is simply untrue.
Posted by waterboy, Saturday, 29 March 2008 8:19:58 AM
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The government, whether it be state or federal simply shouldn't be spending ANY money on private schools.

Reason being: they are private.

Our taxes are for the public good, this means the benefit of public schools to advantage as many people as possible.

All this arguing about whether the government spend more on private or public is irrelevant. Private schools do very nicely thank you, why should our taxes be added to their coffers?

It is another example welfare for the wealthy.
Posted by Fractelle, Saturday, 29 March 2008 8:51:51 AM
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Fractelle,

That really comes back to the argument about choice. If, as a matter of principle, we accept that choice is a good thing then it makes perfectly good sense for government to support a system which provides both government AND independent schools.
If, on the other hand, we believe that better education can be supplied through an education monopoly then your view is valid. Some people have an ideological commitment to state schooling.
Obviously some people share your view and others believe that choice in education is a good thing.
It actually is not true that all people who send their children to private schools are wealthy. Its really a matter of where they choose to spend the money they have. It is also true that many wealthy people send their children to government schools. By your argument shouldn't they too be made to pay the full cost of their children's education?
Posted by waterboy, Saturday, 29 March 2008 9:18:44 AM
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thanks billie waterboy and others for an interesting discussion thus far..

"All education practices are profoundly political in the sense that they are designed to produce one sort of human being rather than another” (Postman: 1973:86)

The broad assumption that education is simply a tool to produce people who contrubute 'economically' to society appears to be the most dominant.

I would like to think that there are other values that are just a valuable.

Consider this fact, for the truly wealthy, education via 'organised schooling' is fast becoming an "option".

For the poor State 'owned' education is the only option.

In Australia estimates of home schooling are hard to find since many choose not to register with the Board of Studies. So these statistics are based on curriculum provider mail outs and lists.

Below is a breakdown of each state. These would be the minimum



NSW - 10 000 students

(1400 registered. With Board of Studies)

QLD 12 000 to 20 000 students

(based on surveys and mail outs.)

VIC 10 000 students

(based on curriculum suppliers and newsletters)
http://www.downunderlit.com/index_files/HStat.htm
Posted by Rainier, Saturday, 29 March 2008 9:48:51 AM
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Waterboy

I have no issues with the children of wealthy people attending public schools - where did you get the idea I did? Also, I am not so ignorant that some people struggle to send their children to private schools - but that is their choice to make. Should we subsidise people who buy Bentleys while the rest of us drive Mazdas?

One of the benefits of public schools is the diversity of its students from all socio-economic levels, ethnic background, religious and non-religious alike.

Besides if more wealthy (and the wealthy do pay taxes like everyone else - mostly) sent their children to public schools, this would be of benefit to those schools, would it not?
Posted by Fractelle, Saturday, 29 March 2008 12:26:31 PM
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Fractele,

Many middle income wage earners do send their children to PSchools in the hope of a better education but there is no real evidence that they deliver a better education other than those scores that suggest migration to university is greater in PS than Public.

I truly wish educational success was redefined to mean a broader set of attributes and attainments other than those that dictate who becomes doctors and lawyers.
Posted by Rainier, Saturday, 29 March 2008 12:42:15 PM
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