The WA government is going to give 30 public schools the right to determine curriculum, hire whatever staff they like and impose whatever discipline they like: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/20/2691090.htm.

Seems like the right thing to do to me. But the teacher's union is threatening to strike.

Our polling a couple of years ago showed that over 50% of people would prefer to send their kids to private schools, and that included a large number of the state school teachers who completed our survey. When the people running the system wouldn't send their kids there you know something is wrong.

Surely an experiment like this can't hurt.

As long as the right people are doing the running.

Yes StG, as long as there are no people running the schools with strict religious agendas, there should be less problems.

If the schools are run with more consequences for the children who break school or societies laws than are currently allowed at public schools, then maybe things will improve.

The main difference between some private school's success, and most public schools, is the issue of discipline.

Less 'rights' for students and more 'rights' for teachers will lead to more respect for adults that the children will need to know for the rest of their lives.

I think this sort of devolution of power - within certain parameters - can only be a good thing. A school in Broome or Kununurra or elsewhere in regional WA has very different needs from a school in Perth; these are needs that policymakers in state capitals are unlikely to understand. Local governance has the potential to make schools more compatible with the communities they serve.

Of course, there need to be guidelines. A school in a remote community should not be allowed to adopt elitist policies that exclude all but the brightest kids; likewise, it should not be allowed to ditch all academic subjects in favour of vocational pathways. Schools need to suit their communities and, when parents are not afforded choice, schools must be 'everything to everyone'. Local governance done well would help this; local governance done badly would hinder it.

But what if any savings will there be in head office?

When federal departments devolved whole areas of operation to private industry the previous managers were retained and promoted through re-classifications as were their senior managers. In fact their Canberra based central offices managed to grow. The Department of Veterans' Affairs is a good example.

Devolution of responsibility should not lead to the distrust that results in more and more reporting, 'coordination' and 'policy' and an explosion in the number of senior managers in central office.

Why are school boards more likely to make bad decisions than a senior bureaucrat in the central office of the Dept of education? Ministers should be very wary of bureaucracies that cannot slim their central offices.

Wow Suze, nice. Off topic cross topic troll flaming. Genius.