In 2017, the education funding wars were in full flow with Gonski 2.0 being announced by the LNP and opposition parties challenging for alternative perspectives.
Key to many of the public discussion was over the need to reduce (or remove) funding to Independent and Catholic System schools and for there to be greater equity in the system.
As is often the case, funding was presented and argued whilst the underlying issues of why non-public schools flourish was ignored. In an ideal, perfect world there would be equal education and resourcing for all but we live in an imperfect world with pragmatic realities.
Educational choice is currently a reality in 21st Century Australia with over 35% of children attending non-public schools. I would argue we need to reframe the debate away from funding and more to why alternatives to public schooling exists and thrives.
Many Independent and Catholic schools have the right to have specific ethos and policies that they can enforce and thus have an element of selective choice over pupils.
More so parents are making an active choice to send to a specific establishment, thus creating an intrinsic positive educational culture in the school. Add to this the carrot for increased earning by staff (through extra/c-curricular involvement) and the stick of the employers’ ability to remove incompetent/abusive staff; a completely different culture of learning evolves.
So, whilst Independent and Catholic schools regularly have high achievement results, there is no evidence that the actual teaching is better This is especially true given the high number of students who receive private tutoring in both Independent schools and public ‘selective’ schools. What cannot be denied, however, are the better facilities and resources in many non-government schools.
The solution is to approach these issues from a positive, as opposed to negative, perspective. Rather than cutting funding from schools to create a diminishing equity – look to what creates a better learning environment. Argue to create the best facilities and resources in public schools.
Properly fund staff in public schools to have the highest levels of empirical evidence based professional development; increase staff wages but also expect staff to engage in the wider extra-curricular elements; develop an ethos for success and engagement and motivation; remove incompetent, abusive staff, and give schools greater freedom to adapt to their community needs.
Parents, children and politicians need to recognise that educators are experts in their fields and they need to let them be the experts. They also need to support and provide the highest quality resources and facilities for the future of all our children.
If we want an equitable system, remove private tuition, a stifled curriculum and a lack of basic facilities. By creating a system where all teachers, and education, are once again celebrated; we as nation will have a productivity that could be the envy of other nations.