Why should ordinary people support private schools? Taxes are taken from everyone so parents who choose to send their children to private schools should pay the full cost. Children are sent to private schools because funding is redirected to support these schools. Take the money away and let all children have an education on a level playing field.
A review of school funding is about to begin. The fat coffers of private schools need to be curtailed. One time head of the NSW Education Department says that the support of private schools is a misplaced belief in "neo-Darwin free-market forces". He goes on to say that the system panders to "an exclusive clientele identified by religion, ethnicity or some other dimension". He is correct in claiming that this gives some an "exclusive education". Income of private schools must be taken into account before money is allocated. The books should be reviewed and openly published by the Government. A school that has money coming out of its ears should certainly be penalized.
The current practise means public schools are starved of funds while many private school do it easy. Money per student in a government school is $12,639 while a student in private school receives $ 6,606. It is incorrect to say that every student being educated in a private school saves the taxpayer 6,033. Wealthy parents would continue to send their children to private schools if no funding was available. The fall in money to the non-government sector since 2003 of 0.6 percent is trivial. It needs to be so much more. Barriers also exist. Public schools have to take a student. Apply for entry to a Catholic school and admit that you are Protestant. You will not hear from that school again.
There is no doubt that the present system of gaining a tertiary education favors the wealthy. The young person from a high-income family can certainly find a place in a university somewhere in the country even if minimum entry academic achievement is not met.
Disadvantage lies in the public school sector so rationally this is where funding should go.
A review of school funding is about to begin. The fat coffers of private schools need to be curtailed. One time head of the NSW Education Department says that the support of private schools is a misplaced belief in "neo-Darwin free-market forces". He goes on to say that the system panders to "an exclusive clientele identified by religion, ethnicity or some other dimension". He is correct in claiming that this gives some an "exclusive education". Income of private schools must be taken into account before money is allocated. The books should be reviewed and openly published by the Government. A school that has money coming out of its ears should certainly be penalized.
The current practise means public schools are starved of funds while many private school do it easy. Money per student in a government school is $12,639 while a student in private school receives $ 6,606. It is incorrect to say that every student being educated in a private school saves the taxpayer 6,033. Wealthy parents would continue to send their children to private schools if no funding was available. The fall in money to the non-government sector since 2003 of 0.6 percent is trivial. It needs to be so much more. Barriers also exist. Public schools have to take a student. Apply for entry to a Catholic school and admit that you are Protestant. You will not hear from that school again.
There is no doubt that the present system of gaining a tertiary education favors the wealthy. The young person from a high-income family can certainly find a place in a university somewhere in the country even if minimum entry academic achievement is not met.
Disadvantage lies in the public school sector so rationally this is where funding should go.
