GY
Otokonoko's comments have resonance with me.
One wonders what the objectives of the program are, funding, over sight and where the schools are. Clearly this is a Liberal Party ideological initiative. Based on the article posted I am yet to be convinced.

Being a graduate of both private and public schools and on the boards of quasi autonomous public schools in SA I can say with some conviction that it isn't always the best solution.
i.e. In one school an active minority chose a second language on the basis of their ethnicity, Polish, without any regard for future students and/or real world practicality.

In a leafy suburban I was a board member to a (Public) high school that had all facilities like rowing, a fully equipped workshop, robotic labs, and pedal pre, solar car entries. Lifts for wheel chairs, A theatre and their own basketball arena ($½ million then govt funded...contacts?). School trips were to Thailand etc. many of the extra facilities came from donations from past students but the govt maintained them. It was highly represented in the legal fraternity. Had we stayed in SA my son was promised an in to the legal community.
We were in their catchment and No1 son's marks were 'acceptable'.

The problem was....there were 12 people ran the board via the committees, 6 no longer had children at the school. At one time a young teacher upset one of the 12's child. The campaign and reason to sack that teacher were overblown and extraordinarily vicious. Dissenting members of the 'staffing committee' were 'moved' at the chairwoman's (ally of the 'aggrieved' mum) insistence. Hubby was a big contributor. (political mine field).

But the areas other public school was a disadvantaged school, with the expelled and not so goods etc.

I'm a firm believer of to each to their NEED.

PS Graham where do the not so good teacher go?..And wouldn't that simply move the problems to the poorer areas? Would the remote schools be able to pay enough to get top teachers anyway?

I and some other caregivers I know are often left doing respite care for children who are suspended.

They are out of control children and hugely difficult to discipline. They lash out at fellow students and their teachers, they know they cannot be touched by an adult or tolerate consequences in any way that would affect them to any behavior changing extent. They choose not to behave for the time honored reason children have always internalized “why should I”.

I should add that they stay with carers because they do in fact choose to behave in our homes, they are more than often lovely kids to have around. Us foster parents have no idea why they behave this way within the school environment.

Try anything, sit them down and teach them polish and a brush up on the bible, anything but keep them in schools and behaving in schools.

I have one suspended sod with me now, he is 6 years old. I find this nuts (big words escaped me there).

But I have a feeling that cutting a school loose is too similar to contracting out children to private companies for “care”.

This government seems to prefer to make others responsible?

I totally disagree with this.

Today Oz has the most mobile population it has ever had, with people, & their kids getting moved all over the country.

I had this problem in the 50s. Dad was used as a trouble shooter, so I went to 17 different schools, in 3 states. Each move, a different level of the cirriculum, & when it was interstate you found yourself up to a year in front, or behind. No kid should have to suffer this. One national cirriculum is the only way to go.

Then regional differences should be stopped.

My last 4 years were at Young. They only offered general science. 9 of the 14 students in my matriculation year wanted to do a B Sc, & needed a higher level of physics than offered. If we had not had a teacher who could not only teach the physics at that level, but was prepared to run 2 hour science honours classes, which gave us the phisics, 3 afternoons a week, we would have had no chance.

After the honours class 7 of us would then go to the oval for the senior football team coaching, or in summer, the cricket team coaching. Another of our teachers came back at 5.00 PM for this, because without us, there were no teams.

We even had to spend one lunch playing opposition to the girls hocky team, or they had no one to train with.

When there are only 20 boys in the senior school, you get to do a lot of stuff. Hell, I was even in the choir. That practiced one lunch time, & one evening, at 7.00 PM.

We always had one or 2 country kids staying with us, over night for some kind of training. Parents just did not drive 15 or so miles into town to pick up kids after these things. It was bus, or nothing.

I would love the teachers of today to see how good it can be, & how much respect our teachers got from us, & all the town, because they earned had it.

Suzionline writes

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

Are you blind Suzi? The reason private schools are flooded with non believers and politicians kids is because the secularist agenda has proven a major in (capital letters) flop. Year one students are not even safe going to the toilets in some secular state schools as the kids act out what our charming porn industry has flooded the market with. You really have got things back the front. About the only thing you seem to have right is the biblical belief of discipline to bring the adamic nature under control. Unfortunately the State schools will never address this issue adequately because secularism is based on lies (the inherit goodness of human nature). I think you have posted enough to emphasize this point

Hasbeen,
Good point and I agree one curriculum in the main academic subjects Aust wide works for me. Variations for regional interests in the choice of non core subjects

You make some interesting points Hasbeen. I wondered about curriculum because it does concern me that fringe groups could set back the advance of a significant part of the population by adopting eccentric curricula - for example, promoting creationism rather than evolution.

However, I am not sure that the curriculum issue is a simple one of uniformity being an unequivocal good. In Queensland we are seeing an increasing number of children undertaking the International Baccalaureate (IB). This appears to be as a result of state school curricula having been dumbed-down to the point where parents, students and employers (and perhaps even universities) have lost faith in them.

The IB presents as a rigorous curriculum with an independent marking system that gives entry to not just Australian universities, but those overseas as well.

So, even under the centralised curriculum we have in Queensland, we appear to be developing a dual curriculum approach, just at the time when the federal government is developing a national curriculum.

This would seem to me to be a bigger challenge in some respects than some schools adopting their own curricula. Bright and ambitious kids look increasingly likely to adopt the IB rather than the standard state or commonwealth one, and you might find some schools not being able to support them, causing trouble if their parents move around.

And there is always the issue of some schools offering subjects that others don't.