Dear David F.,

I agree with you - political parties will say
whatever it takes to get themselves elected.
However, sooner or later governments are held
to account by the voters for doing precisely that.
Which is what we are currently
seeing with the government at the moment.

David f,

As I said, the issue about church influence was only a feeble pretext for an attack on independent schools. Both my kids went to independent "church" schools and neither spent more than an hour a fortnight on any religious studies.

The reason that even Labor does not touch independent school funding is that the cost to the government per child is still only a fraction of the cost for public schooling. Cutting funding for independent schools will cost the government more and deliver a lower standard of education to many.

Shadow Minister wrote:

"The reason that even Labor does not touch independent school funding is that the cost to the government per child is still only a fraction of the cost for public schooling. Cutting funding for independent schools will cost the government more and deliver a lower standard of education to many."

You are right. It will cost the government more. However, it will ensure that every Australian child has access to an adequate education through the public schools if the public schools have the resources.

The additional cost will be a boon to Australia since an educated public can produce more and lift the economy. It will be a boon to Australia since eliminating some of the segregation will promote cohesiveness.

My wife went to St. Peters. At a meeting of former students a few years ago the headmaster asked that all attending would vote for John Howard because St. Peter's "desperately needed a new performance centre."

That is crap. Let's pay the money and not shortchange any Australian children.

Dear David f

I went to two private schools and received a very mixed education for every good teacher I had 3 very poor ones. The problem I had was that I am dyslexic, and no teacher was able to teach me to read, or to understand what my problem was. In the end I decided to teach myself to read simply by learning what each word as a whole looked liked. This was successful but left me totally unable to spell it also meant that I was 12 years old by the time I learnt to read. Personally I would ban private schools as an expensive waste of time.

Continued

I have a particular interest in the the question of taxation and the rich. My grandfather made a fortune insuring people against bomb damage in England during the first world war. Unfortunately he also insured people in Spain against bomb damage during the Spanish civil war of the 1930's, these claims were substantial and were not finally settled until the 1960's. My Grandfather died (of natural causes) during the 2nd world war, he left a complex will which basically gave all the property that he owned to my father's brothers and sisters and my father would get any cash that what was left over after any outstanding claims had been paid. My father was presented with an enormous probate bill, which he had no way of paying and was threatened with Jail if he refused to pay up. My father decided that the only course open to him was to leave the country. My grandfather had bought a lake in the west of Ireland (note paying for his own recreation) so he could go salmon fishing. My father went to Ireland to escape the the treat of jail and took on the running of the lake as a commercial operation. He never made much money at it, but he did develop the lake and the salmon fishery to the point where it employed a number of locals in an area where there was virtually no employment.

The lesson of my family's history is that the taxation system needs to be fair and to take into account peoples ability to pay. I also agree with the premise that the solution to Australia's present problems is to increase the level of taxation. It is important to realise that an individual does not get very wealthy by hard work alone, it also requires a good deal of luck, foresight and a suitable business environment. The government contributes substantially to providing the right conditions for this to happen and as such has every right to tax the very wealthy at much higher rates than the ordinary person.

DF,

I am glad that we agree that independent schools cost the government less per student than public schools, and that good education is crucial for long term economic growth. However, the statistics show that the results from independent schools outstrip public schools by a large margin even accounting for SES back grounds.

The conclusion can only be that de funding independent schools would cost the state more for a lower quality education.