"Newly compiled figures show the federal and state governments will give a Scientologist-linked private school in Sydney more than $1 million.

The Athena School in Newtown says on its website that it teaches from the booklet The Way to Happiness, which was written by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard.

New South Wales Greens MP John Kaye has compiled data sourced from answers given to questions on notice in both federal and state parliaments.

He found that over the next four years, the school will get about $1.4 million of government funding.

"Public money is now being used to support a school that admits to using the discredited Scientology-based teaching methodology," he said."
Source ABC http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/02/2759186.htm

Unless the Scientologists have acted illegally in any way, it is just a eligible for government funding as an Anglican or Catholic School. Even The Brethren receives government funding in this country.

Personally I think any religious group that isolates its members from the general community via strict regulation, coercion or threats should be banned from receiving any government funding. Particularly in cases of family breakdown where the non-believing parent is excluded from contact with their children.

I don't know enough about the Scientologists to make comments about them specifically but that would be the only proviso I would wish in regard to government funding to private religious schools.

I accept that they are a weird lot, those Scientologists.

In fact, I am convinced that Hubbard started the whole thing as a joke, but found that people actually wanted to believe in it. So he kept on embellishing and embellishing the story, fully expecting his followers to reach the end of their credulity quotient... but it never happened.

Which I would suspect is pretty much how all religions, major and minor, actually come into existence, and continue to thrive.

After all, is belief in thetans so very much different from belief in any other deity?

Historically, governments have given tax breaks, handouts and other dispensations to organizations calling themselves religions. The test that they need to pass is not particularly tough, and it would appear that Scientology qualifies.

The only reasonable courses of action are therefore i) cease any and all subsidies to any and all religious groups, or ii) de-classify Scientology itself as a religion.

However, if the latter path is chosen, I would expect the exact same criteria to be applied to Catholicism, Protestantism, Methodism, Happy-Clappies and the whole raft of other believers-in-ethereal-beings.

Funding to ANY non-govt schooling should definitely stop.

The divide and conquer effect is ONE of the myriad of problems facing education today.

Basically if we are already funding a service (education) why should we fund an alternative? regardless of their well meaning intent or not.

Doesn't government have any measures to test learning? New South Wales Greens MP John Kaye should seek that evidence and leave the sensationalism and politics out of it.

Independent schools exist because not all citizens are happy with the State school system and let's face it, some independence in education is highly desirable to protect our democracy.

Besides, since when were taxpayers willing to cough up the sort of money that would provide education for everyone?

The Greens are fond of quoting the UN resolutions when it suits them but they very soon forget when defaming religions of their choosing and in trying to deny the right of people to hold religious beliefs.

Scientology is not my cup of tea, however Greens MP John Kaye seems to be more about discrimination on the basis of religion than anything else.

Beefyboy...... Unfortunately withdrawing government subsidies would exacerbate the gap between private schools and government schools as then only the very privileged wealthy could afford them. We should be grateful that some of our educational taxes are reduced by the willingness of parents to pay school fees and thus alleviate some of the government cost. It would cost us all a lot more if these so called private schools became government facilities. I also suspect the standard of education would drop considerably with less money to go round.