The Forum > General Discussion > Public money for public education - time to pay for performance?
Public money for public education - time to pay for performance?
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The issue that ought to concern taxpayers is whether or not their hard-earned contributions are being directed towards the right sort of educational services.
To resolve this impasse, instead of dividing public funding up along the lines of who contributed it (the old "states fund public, federals fund private" model) or on the basis of how poor or rich your neighbours are (the current federal funding model for non-government schools), how about we adopt a model based on two simple premises:
1. Public money should only support public education.
2. Public education should be recognised no matter what kind of institution (government or non-government) delivers it.
This way we could have a standard level of funding for every student, with institutions receiving a proportion of this total nominal grant, depending on how much of a "public education" service they choose (with the agreement of their school commmunity and/or authority) to deliver. The debate would not be about the dividing of the dollars, but on what constitutes "public education" and deserves the support of the taxpayers.
Schools and school systems would be free to set their own missions, policies and practices and would have to be accountable to their communities.
Eligibility for portions of the grant could be based on agreed criteria, which could include things like:
* delivering approved syllabus
* freedom from mandatory fees
* open access to educational services
* whatever other criteria the public can agree on
Perhaps you can think of some criteria - what are the essential characteristics of a desirable public education service?