Julia Gillard may well believe the public/private debate is over but that’s not the case for many of those I come in contact with. The dramatic inequities that skew students chances at publicly funded university places are a source of growing frustration and anger within the public school community who see the whole situation as a massive rort.

These inequities were boosted through funding arrangements of the Howard government which saw top end private schools receive millions of dollars extra per year. One of the most expensive private schools in my area that benefited from this largesse boasted an ENTER score of 90 plus for almost one third of its students. A school of comparable size in a rural township had not a single student achieve a 90 plus result thus precluding them from high-end university places.

There is no doubt that there are many other ways of addressing the imbalance. Some of those suggested have included; broadening the selection critera past the basic score, differential funding for universities that accept students from lower SES and ability bands and fixing Commonwealth funding imbalances that allow private schools to have a monopoly over high-end places.

However the attitude taken by the Rudd government has given little hope for any substantial changes. It locked in the Howard government funding arrangements and has taken a head in the sand approach to the issue.

It would now appear that the only timely and equitable solution is to proportionally allocate university places by sector; public, catholic, and independent. Let the public school students who make up approximately 65% of the total have access to the same proportion of publicly funded university places in each course.

Naturally I will be accused of ‘dumbing down’ universities by giving places to those without what is deemed the appropriate merit, but in many cases those students haven’t had assess to the resources available to students in wealthier schools.

Let the ‘spendocracy’ compete in its own sector and let all of us strive for fairer access for all Australian students to our universities.

Dear csteele,

Proportional allocation of higher education places
is sensible and logical and doesn't cost the Government
anything. All it would take is to enact a law in Federal
Parliament to that effect. There would of course be great
resistance from a certain sector against this happening,
but for the sake of equity - it should go through.
I would suggest that this proposal be put through to the
PM's email for consideration. Many on OLO could help
in this area. This ties in with the PM's push for
and equity for all schools.

From my own experience and that of my friends and relatives,
students from private schools did not necessarily do well
at university. They had been spoon-fed at their schools -to
get the high scores, however once left to their own devices
at university many of them floundered. It was the students
from the public sector who were forced to fend for themselves
at school that excelled at university.

My husband who studied architecture at university had students
in his class from the toe-end private schools, who were thrown
out of the faculties of medicine, dentistry, and law, and were
finally accepted into architecture because there was a surplus
at that time of vacancies. Today, those students would probably
live of their family wealth.

Better idea lets get rid of the parasitic private schools and their poisoning of childrens minds with eltism. Same for the brainwashing cult religious schools. At the very least stop giving them taxpayer subsidies. If you want your child to go to a poncy school then pay for it. Funny how its always user pays unless it involves the rich and their spawn.

I can not understand why government gives taxpayer's money to private schools. My children finished public schools, two of them universities too, WHY MONEY FROM MY TAXES GO TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS?
IS NOT PRIVATE SCHOOLS, PRIVATE BUSINESS?
If any one wants special schools for his/her children then he/she must pay for them, NOT ME!
I have no reason to pay (from my taxes)for the private schools.
Instead the government to spent more money for the public schools,instead to improve their level, they spent our money for the private schools?
They take money from the poors and give them to the rich, they ignore basic needs from the public schools and support the private schools which already have higher standards.
Unforunatly, ALP's government is not different from Liberal's government about the private schools.
ARE MANY LIBERAL OD ALP OFFICERS, SHAREHOLDERS IN PRIVATE SCHOOLS?
I can not find any other explanetion!
Proportional allocation of universities is better than the current system but it is not enouph if we want equities then WE MUST GIVE SOME POINTS to students from very low income families or from families with extra problems, as language etc.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

im against allocations[they will only be exploited,by those knowing how to play the system[just like the private schools play the system]..3/4 's of the latest round of krudd school fundiung went to private schools[as usual]because they have paid experts who find their way through the govt maize

i would rather the university had special tests[or set performance levels]..where all are accepted into an under[or prep]course for evaluation

howhard really stuffed up the education system[bringing in the american privatised pay as yopu go..dumbing down system..uni isnt about training specialists but making conformists[who are only taught selective areas of learning aimed at keeping an egsistant status quo

too many specialists trained in the same same..[no inovation allowed]uni should be where new things are tried[not the same ground is replicated]trans-generationally, the best..[inovative/inventave should be given the best kids and funding that gets franchised out as the idea unfolds, the kids repay back to the uni not bankers who got govt subdsidy to create debt

I think the time is way past due for a complete overhaul of the whole education system.
Why do we need such classist, elitist boundaries between school, TAFE and universities? With a modular education system, the progression could be seamless.
Study is Work. Why don't we pay students for the work they do?
http://thecomensality.com/avasay/?p=100