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this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
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There is a public school system available to everyone. If people want to send their kids to private schools, they have every right to, but should be prepared to cover 100% of the expenses without any aid from the government.
That sounds like it should be the case, but it isn't. The Catholic schools alone account for something like 20% of the Australian student population. If just those schools weren't there, our existing education system would collapse. Like it or not, we all rely on the presence of independant schools in our community.
This argument has been made before. In 1962, it lead to six Catholic schools in Goulburn to go on strike. The influx of 5,000 students on the public schools in the area demonstrated that independant schools save taxpayers money. Go have a read about it: https://www.robertmenziesinstitute.org.au/on-this-day/goulburn-catholic-school-strike
Imagine that on a national scale. And again, that's just the Catholics. There is not capacity in the public system for every student in Australia. Not by a long shot.
I'll just leave you with some numbers. Here are school numbers (government, catholic, independent...). Please note the vast difference in number of government schools VS the rest. https://shorturl.at/tEPT6 (acara.edu.au)
Here is how much funding the education department provides this year: 10.6B for 6600 public schools and 16.4B for ~3000 of the rest. https://shorturl.at/bFH89 (education.gov.au)
All we need to do is fund public schools. Given the fact that Australia has a secular government and the catholic church pays no taxes, while still receiving taxpayer funded handouts it's only fair.
This has been quite the rabbit hole, thanks for sharing. I've learned more about how much fundung the Federal government provides for government schools (for the students at my kids' school, it's about $2.5k per kid per year).
Are you following topic under discussion? The headline summarises the issue, but the crux of it is also with the very link you pasted: "State and territory governments provide most of the public recurrent funding for government schools. The Commonwealth provides most of the public recurrent funding for non-government schools."
You've compared the funding that the federal government provides to government schools to what it provides to independent schools. However, the bulk of government school funding comes from the state governments. Total government funding (state + federal) to public students is a greater than what non-government schools receive. Normally.
Which brings us to the article: Only ACT, SA and WA are meeting or exceeding their fundung targets for 2023. The other states are lagging a little.
I don't see the solution you're suggesting. Do you think the federal government should take education off the states? I don't think that will be a popular policy. I only picked on the Catholic schools because they have so many students. This isn't a discussion about religion or tax reform. Pretend rather that the Catholic schools are being run by the National David Boon Fan Club. It changes nothing.
There are national education standards, so yes, take the state government decisions out of the equation. Say: "provide $x per student, we'll contribute $y per student." we don't need states (or federal govt) increasing contributions to private schools while decreasing it for public schools. I understand that being in opposition you have to contradict just about anything the government says. I also understand that being in government you have to think of not alienating the swing voters. Yes, doing the right thing is not in the nature of governments.
Solution is simple if you're not the government or the opposition. Gradually phase out funding to independent schools, while you set up new ones.
What we need is equal opportunity for every kid. Private schools are the antithesis of that. If your family can afford it, you're getting a leg up, if they can't, well, here's some bootstraps.
Sorry about honing on the catholic schools. You've mentioned them and my partner still has PTSD from her catholic education. I also see no need for religious school funding, especially those run by the biggest child molestation organisation on the planet.
Non government schools aren't entitled to any money from the public.
How can you consider Catholic schools "independent"?
And the idea isn't too get rid of those schools, it's to use the money that usually goes to these schools to fund regular public schools instead.