tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/non-government-schools-16330/articlesNon-government schools – The Conversation2018-03-22T04:16:52Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937222018-03-22T04:16:52Z2018-03-22T04:16:52ZCatholic schools aren’t all the same, and Gonski 2.0 reflects this<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211483/original/file-20180322-165583-13xaejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the debate about Catholic school funding, it needs to be recognised that not all Catholic schools are the same.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?src=QED6NQLrTlDywMMEYjb53g-1-13">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bill Shorten <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/20/public-school-lobby-criticises-labors-arbitrary-250m-for-catholic-schools">is being accused</a> of buying support from the Catholic sector to win the seat of Batman, by appearing to promise Catholic schools A$250 million in the first two years of a Labor government. The Catholic sector says this money goes a way to restoring the funding lost in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-passage-of-gonski-2-0-is-a-victory-for-children-over-politics-79828">Gonski 2.0 reforms</a>. Public and independent schools are outraged at the perceived favouritism.</p>
<p>Part of the key to making sense of this seemingly endless debate is to recognise that Catholic schools are not all the same. Even more important is that government funding, under the Gonski 2.0 model, will reflect the actual socioeconomic mix of each school.</p>
<p>Batman, for instance, is a diverse electorate, which provides an interesting case study. The Catholic schools serving the highest proportion of educationally disadvantaged students will either be unaffected by Gonski 2.0, or will attract more government funding. Those with more students in higher socioeconomic groups will be affected – but this is fair policy.</p>
<h2>How schools funding works</h2>
<p>Under the new schools funding model, often called Gonski 2.0, a <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/what-schooling-resource-standard-and-how-does-it-work">school resourcing standard</a> (SRS) is calculated for each school. This target level of funding incorporates three elements.</p>
<p>The first is a level of base funding per student for all schools. In 2018, this is A$13,764 per secondary school student and A$10,953 per primary student. </p>
<p>The second is additional needs-based funding based mainly on the characteristics of each school’s students. This is measured in terms of low socio-economic status (SES), disability, and language background other than English.</p>
<p>The third element is an estimate of the capacity of parents who send their children to non-government schools to contribute towards the cost of schooling. This ranges from 10% of the base funding for low-SES schools to 80% for high-SES schools. This means Catholic and independent schools with poorer parents get more government funding than those with more affluent parents, even before individual student need is taken into account.</p>
<p>The estimated parental capacity to contribute is based on <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/2017_and_2018_ses_scores_for_publication_11oct17_-_updated_20.11.17.pdf">each non-government school’s SES score</a>. This is calculated by looking at the <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/aea2013210/s54.html">average socioeconomic makeup</a> of the areas where a school’s parents live.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211487/original/file-20180322-165550-4elkfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211487/original/file-20180322-165550-4elkfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211487/original/file-20180322-165550-4elkfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211487/original/file-20180322-165550-4elkfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211487/original/file-20180322-165550-4elkfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211487/original/file-20180322-165550-4elkfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211487/original/file-20180322-165550-4elkfw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Catholic schools with an SES score of less than 100 will either be unaffected, or have their funding increased, under Gonski 2.0.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/thoughtful-elementary-students-sitting-classroom-143627596">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>A non-government school with students from a mix of average neighbourhoods would have an SES score of 100. In 2018, under Gonski 2.0, parents of a primary student in such a school would be expected to contribute about A$1,750 (16% of the base funding). This would be roughly twice as much for secondary school (A$3,484 or 25%).</p>
<p>A non-government school with students from very affluent neighbourhoods might have an SES score of 120-130. The expected parental contribution would range from A$6,700-A$8,760 for primary schools, and A$9,500-A$11,000 for secondary schools.</p>
<p>A non-government school whose families come from battling neighbourhoods might have an SES score of about 80. For such a school, parents would be expected to contribute the minimum 10% of base funding, or A$1,095 for primary students and A$1,376 for secondary students.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/confused-about-changes-to-school-funding-heres-what-you-need-to-know-78455">Confused about changes to school funding? Here's what you need to know</a>
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<p>These are huge differences. Changing the SES score of a non-government secondary school by just one point means about A$300 more or less government funding per student. For non-government primary schools, this is worth between A$200 and A$400 per student. </p>
<p>This naturally influences school fees. When government funding is low, fees will typically be high. When government funding is high, schools can afford to set low fees.</p>
<h2>From Gonski 1.0 to Gonski 2.0</h2>
<p>The original Gonski model (in 2013) treated Catholic schools as a homogeneous group. They were allocated a “system-weighted average” score based on the state the school was in, such as <a href="http://www.csnsw.catholic.edu.au/school-funding-explained-in-five-easy-steps-no-really/">a score of 101 in NSW</a>. </p>
<p>Primary schools that came under this score had an expected parental contribution of 13.5%. Regardless of how advantaged a Catholic primary school might be, the formula never expected parents to contribute more than A$1,400. </p>
<p>This enabled all Catholic primary schools to keep their fees low – often in the range of A$2,000-A$3,500 even for the most highly advantaged schools and regardless of parents’ actual ability to pay. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a highly advantaged independent primary school would need to have fees of at least A$8,000 per year to have adequate resources to educate its students.</p>
<p>Gonski 2.0 removed the system-weighted average. Funding for Catholic schools will still be handed over to each state as a lump sum, and each Catholic diocese will retain the right to allocate funding across its schools. But the calculation of the school resourcing standard for each school will take into account the huge differences in parents’ financial means.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-does-funding-work-in-the-catholic-school-system-78469">Explainer: how does funding work in the Catholic school system?</a>
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<h2>The Batman case study</h2>
<p>So back to Batman - where this latest funding fight has erupted. The northern part of the electorate is mainly covered by the generally working-class suburb of Reservoir. The middle is split between Preston and Thornbury, both of which have gentrified over recent years.</p>
<p>The southern end includes Northcote, Alphington, Fairfield and Clifton Hill, once home to Italian nonnas but now dominated by professionals keen to live close Melbourne’s centre. There are 13 Catholic primary schools in Batman. The SES scores range from 92 in Reservoir to 117 in Alphington. </p>
<p>Six socially diverse schools in the northern end of Batman have an SES score of less than 100. So their funding is unaffected, or even increased, under Gonski 2.0. Two other schools in the north have an SES score of just over 100. Most of their students (78%) come from families that are more advantaged than average, <a href="http://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/About_icsea_2014.pdf">based on their parents’ education and occupation</a>, and only 4% come from the most disadvantaged quarter of families. Their expected capacity to contribute will increase by less than A$1,000.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-passage-of-gonski-2-0-is-a-victory-for-children-over-politics-79828">The passage of Gonski 2.0 is a victory for children over politics</a>
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<p>Three schools in the middle of the electorate have an SES score of 108 or 109. These will be affected more: their expected capacity to contribute will increase by about A$2,000. </p>
<p>Two small schools at the southern end have an SES score of 115 or above. Their expected capacity to contribute will increase by about A$4,000 per student. But this would have a very different impact across the two schools, because one appears to serve advantaged families (70% of students from the most educationally-advantaged quartile and only 1% from the least), while the other is much more socially diverse (10% from the least advantaged quartile and another 20% from the second-lowest). </p>
<p>This highlights some of the limitations of the current SES score, which is one reason why it is so important to improve it in the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/review-socio-economic-status-ses-score-methodology">current review</a> by the recently appointed <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/national-school-resourcing-board">National School Resourcing Board</a>.</p>
<h2>A national picture</h2>
<p>The nationwide picture is similar to that of Batman. For Catholic schools with the lowest SES scores, nearly three-quarters of their students come from families that are less advantaged than average. For Catholic schools with the highest SES scores, this proportion is well under 10%.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211498/original/file-20180322-165574-tqdmgb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Educationally disadvantaged students are the bottom two quartiles of the socio-educational advantage (SEA) metric, a student-level measure of parental education and occupation that is reported on MySchool.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grattan Institute</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>Looking at the most educationally disadvantaged quartile of students, Catholic schools look even more similar to independent schools with the same SES score.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211499/original/file-20180322-165564-m0w5tt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Educationally very disadvantaged students are the bottom quartile of the socio-educational advantage (SEA) metric, a student-level measure of parental education and occupation that is reported on MySchool.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grattan Institute</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>In fact, for the 21 Catholic primary schools with an SES score of 125 (where the capacity to contribute curve tops out), only about 20 students out of 5,500 come from the bottom quartile. It is hard to argue these schools are socially diverse, or serving the poorer students, arguments sometimes made to justify the need to keep their fees low. </p>
<p>So, not all Catholic schools are the same, and we should stop talking about them as if they were.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p>Catholic schools say they’re losing money under Gonski 2.0, but this is only true for schools serving students in affluent areas – those in poorer areas will either be unaffected, or get more.Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/794252017-06-18T19:51:43Z2017-06-18T19:51:43ZFewer students are going to public secondary schools in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173748/original/file-20170614-21334-173jryx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Australia, around 41% of students go to private secondary schools. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You may have heard recently that public schools in Australia have experienced increased enrolments. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/public-schools-increase-share-of-enrolments-reversing-40-year-trend-20170202-gu42df.html">The Sydney Morning Herald</a> reported that public schools in Australia have increased their share of enrolments, “reversing a forty-year trend”. </p>
<p>A spokesperson from the Australian Bureau of Statistics stated that it was a <a href="http://www.educatoronline.com.au/news/new-school-enrolment-data-revealed-230695.aspx">“reversal of the steady drift”</a> towards private schools.</p>
<p>This is misleading, for two reasons: </p>
<p>First, the overall population in Australia has increased, which has resulted in increased enrolments for many schooling sectors. In total there are 1.28% more students (full-time) enrolled in schools. </p>
<p>Second, while enrolment in public and independent primary schools (excluding Catholic schools) has increased, enrolment in public secondary schools has decreased.</p>
<p>We have one of the highest levels of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/48482894.pdf">private school enrolment within the OECD</a>, and our country also maintains the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2016-en">highest levels of private expenditure</a> towards schools (contributions from households).</p>
<p>It is untrue that there is a reversal of the steady drift if we look at secondary schools. </p>
<p>As the more expensive constituent of schooling, and also the gateway to higher education, it is the secondary school where politics truly come to the fore. </p>
<p>When it comes to debates about funding and privatisation, the secondary school sector is far more entangled in the politics of choice. </p>
<p>When we are told that our public school enrolment is increasing, this may lead you to believe that our public schools are strong and healthy. This disguises the ugly truth that many of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/educational-disadvantage-is-a-huge-problem-in-australia-we-cant-just-carry-on-the-same-74530">public secondary schools are struggling</a>, mainly due to an ongoing stream of policies that have attacked and undermined our public secondary schools. </p>
<h2>By how much as public secondary school enrolments decreased?</h2>
<p>Since 2010, the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Middle-class-School-Choice-in-Urban-Spaces-The-economics-of-public-schooling/Rowe/p/book/9781138120419">public secondary school has decreased</a> its enrolments from 60% to 59.13%.</p>
<p>Since 2010, the average independent school has increased its share of enrolments from 18% to 18.39%. </p>
<p>These changes seem very minor, and when regarded in the context of population increases, are relatively insignificant. </p>
<p>However, when taken with a more <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Middle-class-School-Choice-in-Urban-Spaces-The-economics-of-public-schooling/Rowe/p/book/9781138120419">longitudinal analysis</a>, it is evident that the independent secondary school in Australia has continually bolstered its enrolment share. </p>
<p>The independent secondary school sector has experienced the largest proportional increase in enrolment from 1990 to 2016 (6.39%). </p>
<p>The government (public) school has recorded the largest proportional decrease during this same period (8.87%). </p>
<p>Evidently, there is a consistent pattern of growth within the independent sector and a consistent pattern of decline, in terms of enrolment levels, within the public sector.</p>
<p>It would be simplistic to argue that this is simply a matter of demand, rather than complicated by many other factors including economic, social and cultural shifts. </p>
<p>As education reforms bolstered funding for the private sector, enrolment levels in the private sector increased at a similar rate and time period.</p>
<h2>Encouraging private school choice</h2>
<p>The government has always played a role in encouraging particular consumer choices. This is no different for schooling. </p>
<p>Throughout the 1990s and beyond, public schools were consistently closed or merged across various states and territories. This undoubtedly establishes a sense of instability and volatility for the consumer. </p>
<p>Among the <a href="http://educationaltransformations.com.au/the-future-of-schools-lessons-from-the-reform-of-public-education">reasons cited</a> for these closures was lack of enrolment numbers. Unlike private schools, public schools must consistently prove their economic feasibility. (This reason was strongly <a href="http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=age&kw=richmond+secondary+school&pb=all_ffx&dt=enterRange&dr=1month&sd=1992&ed=1994&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=adv&clsPage=1&docID=news940126_0165_3474">refuted</a> by the <a href="http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=age&kw=protest+and+hayward&pb=all_ffx&dt=enterRange&dr=1month&sd=1992&ed=1996&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=adv&clsPage=1&docID=news931015_0185_1841">public</a>. In Victoria in the 1990s, it was described as <a href="http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/viewDocument.ac?page=1&sy=age&kw=protest+and+hayward&pb=all_ffx&dt=enterRange&dr=1month&sd=1992&ed=1996&so=relevance&sf=text&sf=headline&rc=10&rm=200&sp=adv&clsPage=1&docID=news930910_0248_0963">“the biggest battle over education in more than a decade”</a>.) </p>
<p>While the overall number of full-time secondary students grew, by 2011 the availability of public schools had declined. </p>
<p>The total percentage of public schools in Australia has decreased by 2%. On the other hand, the percentage of private schools has increased by 1% of the total number of schools. </p>
<p>We tend to widely accept privatisation of our schools. In Australia, the overall proportion of students in private schools is 35% ( but 41% in secondary school). This far outweighs the average OECD country, where 18% is the average number. </p>
<p>Compare this to the US, where approximately 8% of students attend private schools. In Canada, this percentage is even lower (approximately 6%), and lower again in countries such as New Zealand, Finland or Sweden. </p>
<p>We also have one of the highest percentages of private expenditure within the school sector. What this means is that we rely far more on a “user-pays” system than the average OECD country. </p>
<p>This is clearly problematic for those families with less capacity to pay.</p>
<p>This was noted in the <a href="http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2016_eag-2016-en">OECD’s Education at a Glance 2016</a> report. When it comes to secondary schooling, for the majority of OECD countries, 90% of expenditure comes from government funds. But this wasn’t the case for Australia, Chile and Columbia, which “rely on over one-fifth of private expenditure at this level”.</p>
<p>While many other OECD countries do fund their private schools, they are also subject to a host of regulations. </p>
<p>When it comes to the funding private schools, Australia is classified as a “high funding and low regulation” country. In comparison to other OECD countries, private schools have little accountability in terms of how they spend their money.</p>
<p>Add to this a dominant cultural narrative around the superiority of private schooling, and you have a disturbing tide of privatisation in our secondary schools. </p>
<p>This tide of privatisation will only further entrench equity gaps for students from families who cannot afford to pay. It will also add to the household burden for those families struggling to pay their private school costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If we look at enrolment figures for public secondary schools, it’s untrue to say the steady drift towards private schools has been reversed.Emma Rowe, Lecturer in the School of Education, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/786692017-06-02T02:01:43Z2017-06-02T02:01:43ZEven for those who believe in ‘the full Gonski’, Labor’s $22 billion figure makes no sense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171936/original/file-20170602-25700-mizves.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor must explain how its additional funding will benefit students.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>School education funding is once again <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/school-funding-557">front and centre</a> of Australian politics. Despite historic bipartisan agreement on the concept of needs-based funding, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/gonski-2.0-a-$22-billion-cut-to-labors-plan-plibersek/8491960">Labor is throwing</a> Gonski 2.0 back in the Coalition’s face.</p>
<p>Labor, backed up by the Australian Education Union, insists that nothing less than “the full Gonski” is worth contemplating. Further, they claim that this requires an extra A$22 billion over the next decade. </p>
<p>Surely more money is a good thing? </p>
<p>Not so fast. Money can’t be spent twice, so funds must be directed where they will have the most impact. Thus, we must analyse why Labor’s plan is so much more expensive than the Coalition’s. Each component can then be considered on its merits.</p>
<p>To save you the trouble, I crunched the numbers. My estimates are necessarily rough, given that the different components cannot always be cleanly separated. But the overall picture is clear. Most of Labor’s extra $22 billion is not directed according to student need, and would have little impact on outcomes.</p>
<h2>Over-funded schools – $2 billion wasted</h2>
<p>Every school has a target level of government funding, called its Schooling Resource Standard (SRS). Under Labor’s plan, the combined Commonwealth and state funding for nearly all schools would reach at least 95% of target by 2019. (A side deal means that Victorian government schools would get there in 2021). </p>
<p>But about 1% of schools already receive well more than their target, costing about $200 million each year. Under Labor’s model, these schools would get funding increases of 3%, per student, per year. </p>
<p>Separately, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Catholic schools are over-funded to the tune of about $45 million a year, courtesy of a special deal that treats them as comparable to Catholic schools across the nation, despite the fact that they are considerably more advantaged. </p>
<p>Added together, over-funding schools wastes roughly $2-2.5 billion over a decade.</p>
<h2>Indexation is too high – another $2 billion</h2>
<p>Every year, per-student costs go up, largely driven by teacher wages. To account for this, both Labor’s plan and Gonski 2.0 include annual indexation of the SRS target. </p>
<p>The problem with Labor’s plan is that the indexation rate was fixed at 3.6% in the 2013 Education Act. As Grattan Institute’s <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/circuit-breaker/">Circuit Breaker</a> report shows, this rate is now too high given historically low wages growth. </p>
<p>Gonski 2.0 removes the fixed indexation rate in 2021, replacing it with a floating indexation rate that is more in line with school costs.</p>
<p>Compared to this, Labor’s plan costs $2-2.5 billion more over a decade. This is enough to hurt government budgets, but the extra money is spread so thinly that it would have minimal impact on student outcomes. </p>
<p>Better than both parties’ approaches is to apply the floating indexation rate from 2018 or 2019. This would save billions, which could be used to fully fund schools more quickly.</p>
<h2>Sweetheart deals waste at least $2 billion</h2>
<p>Parents who send their kids to non-government schools are expected to pay school fees. Parental capacity to contribute is estimated based on where they live. </p>
<p>Under the current legislation, however, all schools within an education system (for example, Catholic, Anglican or Lutheran schools) are rated as having the same capacity to contribute. This means - for the purposes of calculation - that the parents are treated equally, whether they live in Toorak or Toowoomba.</p>
<p>This “system-weighted average” costs the Commonwealth about $300 million per year. A related quirk in the calculation of capacity to contribute for primary schools adds another $200 million per year. </p>
<p>The main beneficiaries are Catholic primary schools in affluent neighbourhoods, which use the funds to keep their fees artificially low. </p>
<p>Gonski 2.0 removes these sweetheart deals; Labor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">which put them in there in the first place</a>, would keep them. </p>
<p>Catholic school leaders say these features are needed to compensate for flaws in the SES score, and the formula does need to be reviewed. But even if they are half right, Labor is wasting about $2 billion over a decade. </p>
<h2>Labor’s cash splash puts about $2 billion at risk</h2>
<p>Labor back-ended its Gonski funding so heavily that some disadvantaged schools would get huge funding increases in 2018 and 2019. </p>
<p>But much of this money will be wasted if schools chase the same limited pool of resources - speech therapists, instructional leaders etc - without the market having time to adjust. </p>
<p>Delaying by just two years, to 2021, would save about $2 billion, and give schools time to plan how to get the most out of the extra cash. </p>
<p>By contrast, however, the Coalition’s 2027 target is too far away. If Labor wants to invest the extra $7 billion needed to deliver Gonski 2.0 in four years rather than ten, that would be a solid policy argument. Even then, nearly half of this amount could be funded by moving to a floating indexation rate two years sooner. </p>
<h2>Commonwealth generosity is a two-edged sword</h2>
<p>The last component of Labor’s high-cost model is more subtle. Back in 2013, federal Labor offered to pick up the lion’s share of whatever money was needed to get schools to their target. </p>
<p>This generous approach has perverse impacts. Western Australia, which funds its government schools well, gets nothing extra from the Commonwealth. Victoria, which does not, gets rewarded. </p>
<p>By 2027, these differences are stark. Victoria would get a two-thirds boost in its Commonwealth funding (on top of enrolments and indexation), such that its students get 28% of their SRS target from Canberra. WA students are left languishing at a paltry 13%. These huge differences are not driven by student need, but by discrepancies in state funding.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171930/original/file-20170602-25673-4ks5to.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Commonwealth government funding as a proportion of SRS, by state, government schools, if Commonwealth picks up 65% of the needs-based funding gap in each state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: Grattan school funding model, based on analysis of data from the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Removing this inequity is a central element of Gonski 2.0: once fully implemented, all government schools will get 20% of their target from the Commonwealth, and all non-government schools 80%.</p>
<p>Labor’s model adds about $8 billion to the Commonwealth’s tab over a decade, money that should be stumped up by states.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>If Labor believes Australian schools need $22 billion more than the Coalition is offering, ambit claims won’t cut it. It must explain how its additional funding will benefit students. And soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.
</span></em></p>Here’s why Labor’s figure for school funding is too high.Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/694062016-11-27T19:14:13Z2016-11-27T19:14:13ZNew model for school funding that won’t break the budget<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147515/original/image-20161125-15351-1v414nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new model proposes to fix school funding arrangements.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Funding schools according to the needs of their students is something of a Holy Grail in Australia: something that we want very much but that has been very hard to achieve.</p>
<p>Every school has a “target” rate of funding for each of its students that takes into account the fact that disadvantage, disability, language difficulties and other factors make it more challenging and more expensive to educate some students than others.</p>
<p>But schools are not funded according to their needs-based target. Schools are funded based on a complex mix of <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">historical arrangements and special deals</a>. </p>
<p>Some schools are <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-some-australian-private-schools-are-overfunded-heres-why-66212">over-funded</a> when compared to their target. But most schools are under-funded across independent, Catholic and government school sectors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147540/original/image-20161125-32049-7tq4pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147540/original/image-20161125-32049-7tq4pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147540/original/image-20161125-32049-7tq4pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147540/original/image-20161125-32049-7tq4pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147540/original/image-20161125-32049-7tq4pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147540/original/image-20161125-32049-7tq4pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147540/original/image-20161125-32049-7tq4pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ACT Independent schools receive combined government funding at over 150% of SRS.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grattan school funding model, based on analysis of data from Commonwealth Department of Education and Training</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lifting all schools to their target funding levels is extremely costly under the current model - we estimate that it would cost more than A$3.5 billion each and every year to fund all schools even at 95% of their target. </p>
<p>But times have changed and unprecedented low wages growth means that needs-based funding has never been easier to achieve than right now. </p>
<p><a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/circuit-breaker/">We propose a new deal</a> that aligns funding to need for the same amount of money. We create big savings by reducing the automatic annual growth on school funding (indexation), affecting all schools. We then reallocate these funds to the most under-funded, getting all schools to their target by 2023. </p>
<h2>How will this work?</h2>
<p>The first step is to fix funding arrangements to set all schools on a course to their target within six years. In parallel, we recommend reviewing the formula for determining needs-based targets to ensure we are aiming for the right target, and adjusting targets if required.</p>
<p>The second step is to introduce transparency in funding arrangements through an independent body, to ensure funding goes where it is needed most. </p>
<p>The third step is to ensure that funding improves teaching and learning. We propose investing in new roles for expert teachers to drive improvement in our classrooms. </p>
<h2>What does the new model mean for schools?</h2>
<p>There will be winners and losers. But there already are. And the current arrangements ensure that the winners stay winners and losers stay losers because school funding grows according to what you got last year, not what you need this year. </p>
<p>Within six years we could level the playing field with very few schools experiencing any loss in real terms.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147542/original/image-20161125-32035-s1ya3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147542/original/image-20161125-32035-s1ya3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147542/original/image-20161125-32035-s1ya3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147542/original/image-20161125-32035-s1ya3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147542/original/image-20161125-32035-s1ya3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147542/original/image-20161125-32035-s1ya3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147542/original/image-20161125-32035-s1ya3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grattan school funding model, based on analysis of data from Commonwealth Department of Education and Training</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fixing funding arrangements</h2>
<p>To fix funding arrangements, we propose reducing the automatic annual growth (indexation) of both target and actual funding per student to recognise the low inflation environment we now live in. Historically education wages have grown each year by about 3% to 4%, but since 2015 this has been dropping and education wages are now growing at about 2.5% each year.</p>
<p>School costs are mostly wages, so school funding indexation should be linked to wage growth in order to maintain its real value over time. But the current (fixed) indexation rates were designed when wages growth was higher and are now over-generous.</p>
<p>Changing indexation arrangements will affect all schools – it slows the growth of every school’s funding target, as well as the actual funding they receive, in line with real cost growth. </p>
<p>The budgetary savings these changes generate are significant and should be redistributed to closing the needs-based funding gap.</p>
<p>We propose additional changes to funding arrangements to ensure all schools reach target funding levels within six years. </p>
<h2>Plan for overfunded schools</h2>
<p>For overfunded schools, we recommend freezing the growth of per student funding until they return to their target funding level. </p>
<p>For example, a school that is over-funded by 10% would receive no funding growth per student for four years, at which time it has returned to target and would then recieve normal funding growth. </p>
<p>This requires over-turning the Gillard government’s promise that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3572064.htm">“no school will lose a dollar”</a>. If no school loses a dollar, some overfunded schools will take more than a century (if ever) to return to target funding levels. </p>
<p>There is no doubt that this is politically challenging. </p>
<p>The independent schools lobby warned the Turnbull government not to treat it as an <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/dont-treat-us-as-an-easy-target-private-schools-issue-warning-over-funding-20160927-grphju.html">“easy target”</a> after education minister Simon Birmingham flagged the idea on <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/qa-simon-birmingham-says-some-private-schools-overfunded-20160926-grp1ji.html">ABC’s Q&A show in September</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, even with a freeze on indexation, many schools will take decades to return to target levels, because some schools are funded nearly three times as much as the formula says. A list was <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/full-list-1-billion-flowing-to-wealthy-private-schools-officially-classed-as-overfunded-20160930-grs6nz.html">published recently</a> in the Sydney Morning Herald. </p>
<p>For these highly overfunded schools we recommend year-on-year funding cuts over six years from 2018 to 2023 to spread the impact and ensure all schools reach 95-100% of their target funding levels by 2023. </p>
<p>While tough, these schools have been receiving far more than they need and the change will be easier for them to manage in a low inflation environment. And the most over-funded schools typically have high fees and get the bulk of their revenue from parents, not from the government. They are not the struggling schools in the system.</p>
<h2>Plan for underfunded schools</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, schools that are under-funded will receive boosted indexation to help them catch up over time. Schools that are very under-funded (below 90% of their target) will require top-up payments spread over six years to reach their target funding by 2023. </p>
<p>This will benefit schools in all sectors - in fact, some of the most under-funded schools in Australia are actually independent schools.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for budgets?</h2>
<p>The model will cost the Commonwealth exactly the same as the 2016 Budget over the next four years – and offers significant savings when compared to the funding arrangements under legislation. </p>
<p>The implications however are very different for individual states and for each school sector in each state. </p>
<p>Whether an individual state’s budget will be better or worse off under the model depends on the rate at which per student funding is growing at present (information not publicly available) and how well schools are currently funded compared to the target.</p>
<p>A state like Victoria with under-funded schools will need to step up under the model and spend more on their schools than they have in the past. But it will also receive more Commonwealth funding.</p>
<p>ACT government schools are currently over-funded schools, and the ACT could potentially bank savings under the compact. But it will also receive less Commonwealth funding.</p>
<h2>Funding must improve teaching and learning</h2>
<p>Fixing school funding arrangements – so that actual school funding matches target school funding – will help to maintain a fair and inclusive education system. </p>
<p>But fixing school funding arrangements is only part of the battle. Just as importantly, schools must spend their funding well.</p>
<p>We need structures and approaches that will improve teaching quality to ensure school funding is well spent. </p>
<p>To maximise student learning progress, teachers need to use evidence-based teaching practices in the classroom, including <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/targeted-teaching-how-better-use-of-data-can-improve-student-learning/">targeted teaching</a> and the types of practices described by John Hattie in <a href="http://visiblelearningplus.com">Visible Learning</a>. </p>
<p>We propose investing in teaching quality, through two new roles that recognise expertise in teaching.</p>
<p>Master Teachers and Instructional Leaders will work in and across schools to drive improvements in teaching effectiveness in their subject areas. These roles provide a mechanism for spreading the use of evidence-based teaching practices to all Australian classrooms.</p>
<p>The new model we propose is a circuit breaker. It aligns school funding to need, invests in teaching quality, and maintains most schools’ purchasing power, without breaking the budget.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69406/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and Grattan uses the income to pursue its activities.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Griffiths does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new proposed deal on school funding delivers the Gonski funding within budget.Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteKate Griffiths, Associate, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/661982016-10-09T19:02:45Z2016-10-09T19:02:45ZWhy do parents take such different approaches to their kids’ education?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140681/original/image-20161006-20132-1orr3zz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some children spend the school holidays studying in tutoring centres.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While some children spend the school holidays studying in tutoring centres, enrolled in sports camps or other structured activities, others are left to do their own thing.</p>
<p>So why is it that parents take such different approaches to education and how their children spend their time?</p>
<p>Families in New South Wales, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2015.1061976">for example</a>, are increasingly paying for supplementary education such as private tutors. Commercial tutoring centres in particular are popular among parents hoping to get their children into the state’s competitive Opportunity Classes – an accelerated learning program in Years 5 and 6 in some primary schools – and selective high schools. </p>
<p>This means that more children are spending time outside of school in formal learning environments, though this is still an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2015.1061976">under-researched</a> area. </p>
<h2>Parenting styles</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123738/original/image-20160524-11025-gx3lpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123738/original/image-20160524-11025-gx3lpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123738/original/image-20160524-11025-gx3lpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123738/original/image-20160524-11025-gx3lpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123738/original/image-20160524-11025-gx3lpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123738/original/image-20160524-11025-gx3lpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123738/original/image-20160524-11025-gx3lpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-tiger-to-free-range-parents-what-research-says-about-pros-and-cons-of-popular-parenting-styles-57986">“helicopter parent”</a> and “<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/testing-times-selective-schools-and-tiger-parents-20150108-12kecw.html">tiger mum</a>” stereotypes conjure images of over-scheduled and closely-monitored children. Such terms are always value-laden and are highly classed, racialised and gendered.</p>
<p>For example, negative media coverage of “tiger parents” has scrutinised the educational achievements of Asian-Australian students and the practices of their parents (usually women). </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/disposed-to-learn-9781441162458/">academics</a> have <a href="https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/understanding-minority-ethnic-achievement-race-class-gender-and-success(114260ec-e361-4557-8c41-678d1d31f484)/export.html">argued</a>, this feeds into a politics of racial hostility against migrants.</p>
<p>It also approves certain skills and experiences among Anglo-Australian parents, but does not value different <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2015.1061976">pedagogical practices</a>.</p>
<p>In reality, parents’ different experiences and backgrounds, including a combination of class, ethnicity, gender, history and place, will all play a role in how they approach their children’s education – as well as how they view an appropriate use of time. So will their social and cultural <a href="http://cgj.sagepub.com/content/15/1/5.abstract">construction</a> of childhood. </p>
<p>What we need is a greater understanding of the social, economic and global conditions shaping parents’ different approaches to their kids’ education.</p>
<h2>Education outcomes are less secure</h2>
<p>Over the last four decades we have <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-gonski-gone-we-can-expect-more-demand-for-private-schools-52760">seen decreased funding</a> for public education relative to private schooling; an increased focus on academic results rather than equity and equality; and the rise of “school choice” which benefits families with higher <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-no-great-love-for-the-private-path-but-parents-follow-the-money-40376">levels</a> of education and income. </p>
<p>At the centre of these changes has been a growth of <a href="http://www.whitlam.org/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/694199/The_experience_of_education_-_Qualitative_Study.pdf">school examinations</a>, <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1314/QG/StudentAchievemen">standardised measurement</a>, and the rise of private <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01596306.2015.1061976">tutoring</a>. </p>
<p>We have also seen a <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-more-money-for-schools-improve-educational-outcomes-57656">dramatic divergence</a> in the funding outcomes between schools. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-some-australian-private-schools-are-overfunded-heres-why-66212">Some schools</a> are well equipped and attended by students from predominately affluent backgrounds. <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-education-funding-has-increased-but-not-everyone-benefits-65340">Others lack the resources</a> needed to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds.</p>
<p>There has been a decline in jobs available for youth and a rise in employment <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-whacking-stick-is-not-enough-to-get-young-people-into-work-38710">insecurity</a>, as well as uncertainty about what the <a href="https://sarweb.org/media/files/sar_press_figuring_the_future.pdf">future</a> of work will look like.</p>
<p>Australia is also host to <a href="http://sarweb.org/index.php?sar_press_the_global_middle_classes">new middle classes</a>, including those from Asian migrant backgrounds, in search of economic and educational mobility.</p>
<p>All of this impacts on the decisions that parents make about their children’s education and time use, and the future they envisage for them.</p>
<h2>Conflicting values</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://theconversation.com/gentrification-is-dividing-australian-schools-53098">research</a> with inner-Sydney, public primary schools, we found that while some parents are investing in tutoring and preparing for examinations from an early age, others are strongly rejecting this approach.</p>
<p>These parents, whom we call “community-minded”, were typically white and employed in the public sector or creative industries. </p>
<p>We defined them as part of an older middle class who wanted to distinguish themselves from the new middle classes in their approach to schooling. </p>
<p>Community-minded parents rejected what they saw to be “over-schooling” during primary school. They opted not to compete for places in selective schools and classes, or not to prepare for the exams. Instead, they valued an education experience that provided what they called “real world” exposure that nurtured the “whole child”.</p>
<p>This included, among other things, developing students’ social and civic skills, attending a school composed of “cultural diversity”, and “empowering the children to make up their own minds”. </p>
<p>As one parent explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want a school where my child is going to be happy and thrive, not one where they’re going to be in a sort of academic hothouse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They also spoke of schools as communities to develop their children’s sense of social responsibility. Another parent we interviewed appreciated her school’s commitment to community justice and to “alerting kids to when something’s not right, and [saying] ‘this is our collective responsibility’.”</p>
<p>These parents did not seek social mobility through schooling in ways often pursued by migrants and others who may not have high levels of social and cultural capital. </p>
<p>Some also expected academic success to come naturally to their children without pursuing these strategies. This meant they had a level of familiarity with, and trust in, the academic system - an idea that is more common among established middle-class families in Australian schooling.</p>
<p>Their comments showed how “intelligence” is a <a href="https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/understanding-minority-ethnic-achievement-race-class-gender-and-success(114260ec-e361-4557-8c41-678d1d31f484)/export.html.">socially constructed</a> term, as tutoring and “cramming” were criticised for producing educational success in “the <a href="http://www.bloomsbury.com/au/disposed-to-learn-9781441162458/">wrong</a> way”.</p>
<h2>A growing source of tension</h2>
<p>Taking a moral stance against tutoring and examination preparation is not new. Certainly not all our community-minded parents expressed disapproval of the approaches of other middle-class families. </p>
<p>But our research shows that with Australia’s education system becoming ever more competitive, the conflicting values in this area are a growing source of tension within some school communities. This needs to be better understood.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rose Butler receives funding from the NSW Department of Family and Community Services.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Ho has received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>While some parents are investing in tutoring and preparing for examinations from an early age, others are strongly rejecting this approach. Why is this?Rose Butler, Research Associate, UNSW SydneyChristina Ho, Senior Lecturer & Discipline Coordinator, Social & Political Sciences, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/662122016-10-03T04:12:47Z2016-10-03T04:12:47ZYes, some Australian private schools are overfunded – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140023/original/image-20161003-24082-1v1hlfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is little regulation about how private schools spend public funding.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education minister Simon Birmingham recently made the claim that some private schools are <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-27/education-minister-acknowledges-some-private-schools-over-funded/7880058">“overfunded”</a>. </p>
<p>The comment received considerable interest because it opens the possibility that public funding of such schools may decrease. </p>
<p>This is a remarkable turnaround from the Gillard Labor government’s <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/prime-minister-julia-gillard-says-private-schools-will-get-more/story-fn59nlz9-1226453690310">pledge</a> that no school would see a reduction in the amount received from the public purse.</p>
<p>While Birmingham was reluctant to define what he meant by “overfunded”, the student resource standard established by the <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf">Gonski school funding review</a> is a good place to start. </p>
<p>Since his comment, an analysis published in the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/full-list-1-billion-flowing-to-wealthy-private-schools-officially-classed-as-overfunded-20160930-grs6nz.html">Sydney Morning Herald</a> found that more than 150 private schools in Australia are overfunded based on the Gonski resource standard. This overfunding amounts to more than A$215 million per year.</p>
<h2>Complex funding model</h2>
<p>As Birmingham noted, the current funding system is extremely complex and opaque. It is a collection of <a href="https://theconversation.com/gonski-model-was-corrupted-but-labor-and-coalition-are-both-to-blame-65875">historical deals and arrangements</a> rather than a coherent strategy.</p>
<p>In tracing a brief policy history, federal government grants were first provided for private schools in 1964. These were intended as one-off capital grants for struggling Catholic schools to purchase science blocks.</p>
<p>Recurrent per-student grants for private schools were introduced in 1970. While funding for private schools was initiated by the conservative Gorton government, Labor and Coalition governments since then have supported federal funding of private schools because it gained them popularity with voters. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/gough_whitlam/achievements/education">Whitlam</a> government in 1973 attributed large funds to private schools, but this was counteracted by his equally large funding for public schools. </p>
<p>Federal funding to private schools increased substantially during the <a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/national-issues/the-great-school-fraud">Howard government</a>. Between 1999 and 2005, federal funding for public schools increased by $261 per student compared to an increase of $1584 for each private school student. </p>
<h2>How private schools are funded</h2>
<p>All private schools receive public funds, mostly from the federal government but also from state governments. </p>
<p>They receive recurrent funding, to pay for ongoing costs like teacher salaries. They also receive capital funding, to pay for their buildings and facilities.</p>
<p>There is very little regulation about how private schools can spend their share of public funds. <a href="http://apo.org.au/resource/drift-private-schools-australia-understanding-its-features">Research</a> from over a decade ago showed that many private schools use public funds to improve their facilities rather than reduce fees.</p>
<p>Overall, total public funding (federal and state) has increased at a greater rate for private than public schools. <a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/funding/productivity-commission-fails-to-lift-the-bonnet-on-its-own-funding-figures">Analyses of data</a> from the Productivity Commission showed that total public funding has increased by 9.8% for private schools but only 3.3% for public schools over the last ten years.</p>
<p>Lower-fee private schools receive a larger amount of recurrent public funding than their higher-fee counterparts. This is because the socio-economic status (SES) dimension of the model, in which funding is based in part on the SES of students at the school. But high-fee schools receive a substantial amount as well. </p>
<p>A brief illustration from the federal government’s <a href="http://www.myschool.edu.au/">MySchool website</a> is telling.</p>
<p>We examined MySchool data from the six most expensive elite private schools in Perth that charge more than $20,000 in fees per student. </p>
<p>On average, these six schools received $2,200 per student from the state government and $3,000 per student from the federal government in recurrent funding. </p>
<p>They also received on average $3.7 million in capital funding from the federal government over the last five years. Taken all together, these figures amount to an estimated public spend of $270 million over the last five years, for six schools that are already extremely well resourced.</p>
<h2>Funding model is inefficient</h2>
<p>The other problem with our current funding model is that it is inefficient. For example, a key prong of the federal government’s innovation strategy is to increase the number of young people who study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. Yet <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680939.2013.846414">research</a> found that many low SES high schools don’t offer these subjects due to funding constraints.</p>
<p>Our funding system is based on an illogical basis of entitlement, not need. In our current system, all schools are entitled to public funds, regardless of whether they actually need them or not. All parents are entitled to a “return” on their tax dollar, regardless of where they send their child to school.</p>
<p>Rather than basing our funding model on the entitlements of schools, it should be based on the needs of students and communities. </p>
<p>All students, regardless of where they live or how much money their parents earn, are entitled to an education that will develop their interests and capacities to the fullest. This would benefit individual students and their families and communities, but it would also benefit the nation as a whole.</p>
<p>Very few countries, if any to our knowledge, provide similarly high levels of recurrent and capital funding to private schools, while also allowing them to charge fees.</p>
<p>Not all private schools are overfunded. But it is probably safe to say that most high-fee private schools are overfunded, and conversely, that many low-fee private schools are underfunded. And this will only change if we abandon the old deals and start afresh with a simpler and more coherent funding model.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s school funding model provides high levels of public funding to private schools, while also allowing them to charge fees.Laura Perry, Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Research, Murdoch UniversityEmma Rowe, Lecturer in the School of Education, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/658752016-09-22T20:30:14Z2016-09-22T20:30:14ZGonski model was corrupted, but Labor and Coalition are both to blame<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138744/original/image-20160922-11668-uig7tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Education Minister Simon Birmingham is calling for a new education funding model to replace Gonski.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The school funding wars are set to erupt again when federal, state and territory education ministers meet in Adelaide on Friday.</p>
<p>Federal education minister Simon Birmingham will use the <a href="http://www.scseec.edu.au/Council/EC-Meetings.aspx">Education Council</a> meeting to argue for a new post-2017 federal funding model to replace the current <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">“Gonski model”</a> established under Labor.</p>
<p>Birmingham came out <a href="https://theconversation.com/birmingham-prepares-for-fundamental-changes-to-labors-gonski-funding-model-65828">with guns blazing on Thursday</a>, arguing current arrangements are inequitable, overly complex and represent a <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/fix-needed-on-gonski-corruption-says-simon-birmingham/news-story/9fb7057cf4a6fc55cf669aa7271bbbe1?login=1">“corruption”</a> of the ideals set out in the <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiOh8KLqqLPAhXEdD4KHdldCQEQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.education.gov.au%2Fsystem%2Ffiles%2Fdoc%2Fother%2Freview-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFL_985IKRpf0e21txDImY9O3TRTQ&sig2=JSkFUiJpwEoa7LgaCUpp3A">2011 Gonski Report</a>.</p>
<p>The Coalition wants its new model to be needs-based and nationally consistent, but is also offering much less cash than the Gonski model, and wants to attach <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/quality_schools_acc.pdf">a range of new conditions</a> to how the money can be spent.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-coalitions-real-agenda-for-australian-schools-53308">“less cash, more caveats”</a> model is a hard sell, and states and territories are ready for a fight – especially powerful states such as New South Wales that <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/nsw-education-minister-adrian-piccoli-slams-productivity-commissions-national-education-report-20160906-gr9rul.html">remain ardent supporters</a> of the Gonski model. </p>
<h2>The current funding mess</h2>
<p>The Coalition is absolutely right in suggesting the ideals guiding the Gonski school funding reforms have been corrupted.</p>
<p>The Gonski report was designed to clean up Australia’s opaque and complex system of school funding and address significant inequalities by establishing a new needs-based funding model. </p>
<p>The report made a compelling argument to introduce a “base rate” level of funding per student, known as the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), with extra loadings on top based on a number of <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013A00067">equity categories</a>.</p>
<p>The model Labor introduced did reflect this core structure, but then messy politics got in the way at the point of implementation. </p>
<p>In order to convince states and territories to sign on to the reform, different deals were done with different jurisdictions, and Labor promised that <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/prime-minister-julia-gillard-says-private-schools-will-get-more/story-fn59nlz9-1226453690310">no school would lose a dollar</a> under the plan.</p>
<p>Instead of a needs-based model, therefore, the result was a perversion of the Gonski ideal – an inconsistent patchwork of approaches across the nation that protected the vested interests of non-government schools.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/fix-needed-on-gonski-corruption-says-simon-birmingham/news-story/9fb7057cf4a6fc55cf669aa7271bbbe1?login=1">Federal government modelling</a> has been used to argue that under the current system, schools with exactly the same demographics and equity needs receive different funding in different states and territories.</p>
<p>This is smart politics by the Coalition: turning Labor’s argument for equitable funding on its head by arguing Gonski is far from equitable. </p>
<p>Of course, as the opposition education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/fix-needed-on-gonski-corruption-says-simon-birmingham/news-story/9fb7057cf4a6fc55cf669aa7271bbbe1?login=1">pointed out</a>, it was under the Coalition (not Labor) that the final three states (Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory) signed onto the Gonski reform, which further contributed to national inconsistency.</p>
<p>So the Coalition’s attempts to heap all the blame on Labor for the current state of funding incoherence reflects a strong case of selective memory.</p>
<h2>Can the federal government produce ‘real’ needs-based funding?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Latest-News/ID/3215/Press-Conference-Adelaide">Birmingham suggests</a> the Coalition’s new model will “target need” and “treat states equitably”. </p>
<p>However, any truly needs-based model will invariably require a reduction in the already high levels of government funding provided to many elite non-government (Catholic and independent) schools. </p>
<p>This has been a thorn in the side of past Coalition and Labor governments, which have consistently caved to pressure from vested interests.</p>
<p>For example, well before Labor promised no school would lose a dollar, the Coalition did exactly the same thing in 2001 when it introduced its <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/library/pubs/bn/sp/schoolsfunding.pdf">socioeconomic status (SES) model</a> under Prime Minister John Howard. </p>
<p>Both sides of politics, therefore, are guilty of such fiscal populism, whereby no one “loses”, even though funding is supposed to be assigned according to need. </p>
<p>This is a classic tale of politics driving policy. </p>
<p>Such a position is also untenable in a time of contracting budgets, and growing social, economic and educational inequalities.</p>
<p>There is also the difficulty of trying to get national consistency within a federal system in which states and territories ultimately control schooling. <a href="http://www.senatorbirmingham.com.au/Latest-News/ID/3215/Press-Conference-Adelaide">As Birmingham himself noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>States and territories will always be free under our Constitution to fund schools in their state or territory as they see fit.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, while the federal government provides Gonski funding, states and territories each have different needs-based funding models, and remain the dominant funders of public schools.</p>
<p>So unless all states and territories adopt the same funding formulas, there will always be difference, no matter what the federal government does.</p>
<h2>The policy and political challenges ahead</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/fix-needed-on-gonski-corruption-says-simon-birmingham/news-story/9fb7057cf4a6fc55cf669aa7271bbbe1">warning</a> by NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli – that any reduction in the federal funding NSW receives would mean “war” – speaks precisely to the policy and political challenges ahead.</p>
<p>Not only is developing a new funding policy a great challenge in itself, but seeking to enact that policy in a volatile political climate is a fraught undertaking. </p>
<p>The Education Council meeting will no doubt ignite the most recent battle in a long and protracted war over school funding – one that is seemingly without end. </p>
<p>Birmingham’s challenge is undoubtedly colossal. He is trying to achieve what no federal education minister has done before him – establish a truly national needs-based funding model – but with less money and more caveats.</p>
<p>The armies have gathered in Adelaide. The battle lines are drawn. We await for the dust to settle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn C. Savage receives funding from the Australian Research Council under the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) scheme for his project titled 'National schooling reform and the reshaping of Australian federalism' (2016-2019). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Lewis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Instead of a needs-based model, we ended up with an inconsistent patchwork of approaches across Australian states and territories that protected the vested interests of non-government schools.Glenn C Savage, Senior Lecturer in Education Policy and ARC DECRA Fellow (2016-19), Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneSteven Lewis, Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/632682016-08-02T20:08:13Z2016-08-02T20:08:13ZDhaka café attack: don’t blame private education for radicalisation in Bangladesh<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132572/original/image-20160801-21010-cdkyqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bangladesh’s ruling party ministers say private schools and universities are responsible for the recent surge in terrorism, which includes the attack on a bakery in Dhaka.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suvra Kanti Das/Newzulu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-20641059">experts</a> and <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/scaling-private-sector-education-three-lessons">development organisations</a> advocate greater provision of fee-charging for-profit schools in developing countries.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21660063-where-governments-are-failing-provide-youngsters-decent-education-private-sector">the Economist</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where governments are failing to provide youngsters with a decent education, the private sector is stepping in. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/mar/16/private-education-development-public-research-profit">view remains challenged</a> – and the United Nations has recently urged governments to <a href="http://www.globalmarch.org/content/unhrc-passes-landmark-resolution-concerning-right-education">monitor and regulate private education providers</a> – for-profit schools and universities are in the spotlight in Bangladesh for a very different reason. </p>
<p>Following the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history, the government is accusing English-medium private schools – schools that teach in English, offer GCSE/International Baccalaureate education, and mostly cater to rich urban families – and universities of not doing enough to tackle youth radicalisation.</p>
<p>On July 1, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/01/dhaka-bangladesh-restaurant-attack-hostages">28 people, including 20 hostages, were killed</a> when seven youth militants stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in the Bangladesh capital’s diplomatic zone. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/world/asia/bangladesh-hostage-standoff.html?_r=0">Islamic State claimed responsibility</a> for the attack, which <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/01/gunmen-attack-restaurant-in-diplomatic-quarter-of-bangladeshi-ca/">targeted Western citizens</a>. </p>
<h2>Private education blamed for surge in terrorism</h2>
<p>The government is adamant that local militants are the culprits. It has focused on the fact that they were educated in the country’s <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/from-elite-schools-to-isis-mystery-of-dhaka-attackers-1427564">elite schools and universities</a>. </p>
<p>Three of the attackers studied <a href="http://www.parisguardian.com/index.php/sid/245564477">at schools that provide Western education</a> and guarantee English proficiency, a key marker of affluence and status in Bangladesh. </p>
<p>Yet young victims <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/02/asia/bangladesh-dhaka-attack-victims/">Abinta Kabir, Tarishi Jain</a> and Faraaz Hossain are also graduates of an elite secondary school, the American International School Dhaka. This highlights a <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/diverging-paths-of-victim-gunman-in-terror-attack-show-bangladeshs-split-1467997212">deep split in</a> Bangladeshi society.</p>
<p>Soon after the attack, Bangladesh’s prime minister vowed to <a href="http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/50867">find the root causes of terrorism</a>. While government agencies are still investigating, ruling party ministers are convinced non-state educational institutions are responsible for the recent surge in terrorism. </p>
<p>Soon after a senior minister called for <a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/jul/10/nasim-demands-action-against-north-south-university#sthash.xN68lKLK.dpuf">actions against elite English-medium private universities</a> and schools, the North South University (NSU) acting pro vice-chancellor <a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/2016/jul/16/nsu-acting-pro-vc-2-others-arrested">was arrested</a>. </p>
<p>A junior minister was reported as saying some private university students are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>getting involved with militancy in the private universities <a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/politics/bcl-form-committees-pvt-universities-1254274">in the absence of progressive political activities</a>. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The ruling party’s student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), has announced it will <a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/opinion-bcl-panacea-militancy-private-universities-not-all-1254592">form committees across all the private universities</a> to “fight militancy”. </p>
<h2>Previous attacks</h2>
<p>The focus on private universities does not seem disproportionate if one considers the background of other local youths involved in terrorist activities. </p>
<p>The attacker at the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/world/asia/bangladesh-bomb-eid-sholakia-eidgah.html">Eid gathering</a> in Bangladesh on July 7, 2016, also graduated from NSU, Bangladesh’s leading private university. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/jul/15/nsu-students-under-surveillance#sthash.EYJeOezM.dpuf">Six students from the same university were arrested</a> for the killing of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haidar in February 2013. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/10/nyregion/30-year-sentence-for-man-who-tried-to-bomb-federal-reserve.html">The man accused of plotting to bomb the New York Federal Reserve Bank</a> in 2012 was also a former NSU student.</p>
<p>But the government’s thinking is flawed. Exerting greater political control over the private education sector is not going to solve the problem of terrorism.</p>
<h2>Failure of state education</h2>
<p>The long-term neglect of education by the state in Bangladesh has created a void that private providers have filled. </p>
<p>Private universities have also partly grown in response to the poor performance of heavily subsidised state-run universities. Despite decades of government support, these universities <a href="http://opinion.bdnews24.com/2013/09/02/in-a-league-of-our-own/">do not feature in the list of top 100 Asian universities</a>. </p>
<p>A key reason for this is pro-government student politics, which condones violence, undermines scholarship, accepts corruption in teacher appointments and provides immunity against law-breaking. </p>
<p>Ruling party student leaders at public universities are regularly in the news for acts of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25431557">murder</a>, <a href="http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1089432">killing</a>, <a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/politics/2014/nov/09/chhatra-league-make-name-muggers-du">extortion</a>, <a href="http://newagebd.net/230660/bcl-men-set-fire-to-rajshahi-college-hostels/">arson</a>, <a href="http://newagebd.net/153158/10-injured-as-bcl-men-attack-sust-teachers/">assaults on teachers</a>, <a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-72802">destruction of private property</a> and <a href="http://newagebd.net/117161/jnu-expels-bcl-leader-permanently-for-sexual-offence/">sexual offences</a>. This has pushed many to opt for high-fee private universities.</p>
<p>There are serious concerns over education quality in Bangladesh. Examination <a href="http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-146172">papers are frequently leaked</a>. Students engage in rote learning and rely on private tuition instead of classroom lessons. Private coaching reached such endemic proportions that the government had to <a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/feature/2016/apr/21/under-ban-0">pass a law to ban the practice</a>. </p>
<p>The end outcome is a <a href="http://www.cgdev.org/blog/learning-profile-bangladesh-too-darn-flat">weak relationship between schooling and learning</a>.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/681929?journalCode=cer">recent study</a>, I found very small gains (in terms of very basic cognitive skills) from grade completion among rural children aged 10-18 years. </p>
<p>This implies a flat schooling-learning profile and a <a href="http://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/2015/03/learning-crisis-in-south-asia/">deep crisis in Bangladesh’s education sector</a>. In collaboration with <a href="http://blog.brac.net/2015/03/in-school-but-not-learning/">researchers from BRAC</a>, I found similar evidence of a low level of learning across state and non-state schools.</p>
<p>Fact of the matter is, a large proportion of the adolescents in rural Bangladesh are <a href="http://blog.brac.net/2015/03/in-school-but-not-learning/">in school but not learning</a>. This is worrying because the <a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/jul/17/absence-thinking-evil">absence of critical thinking ability</a> can make youth vulnerable to radical and extremist ideology.</p>
<p>Not only the government has not built enough schools since 1971, <a href="http://www.asianews.network/content/education-budget-bangladesh-too-inadequate-18367">budgetary spending on education has rarely exceeded 2% of GDP</a>. </p>
<p>If the government is serious about tackling terrorism, politicisation and <a href="http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/jul/15/nsu-students-under-surveillance#sthash.69qNVKLP.dpuf">increased surveillance in educational institutions</a> will not be enough. </p>
<p>Despite many limitations, private schools and universities have for decades served as a complement to the state’s educational initiatives. They should not be singled out as a security threat. </p>
<p>Stereotyping non-state educational institutions will only create more divisions among Bangladeshi citizens, making it harder to build a political consensus to fight radicalisation. If anything, these institutions can be an <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/06/01/the-madrasa-myth/">effective force</a> against insurgency by improving national literacy rates.</p>
<p>Instead of blaming students of English-medium schools, the government should focus on enhancing the quality of government schools, which are increasingly becoming weak substitutes for non-state schools. </p>
<p>Extremist outfits are more likely to prosper in an environment without accountability and good governance and where <a href="http://thewire.in/51747/the-kids-are-alright-worry-about-the-adults/">lawmakers themselves are law breakers</a>. </p>
<p>Failing states, a broken public education system and autocratic regimes – and not private schools or the absence of party politics in private university campuses – create a hotbed for terrorism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>M Niaz Asadullah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If the government is serious about tackling terrorism, politicisation and increased surveillance in private schools and universities will not be enough.M Niaz Asadullah, Professor of Development Economics and Deputy Director of the Centre for Poverty and Development Studies (CPDS), University of MalayaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/626642016-07-20T18:30:12Z2016-07-20T18:30:12ZWhy low-fee private schools are struggling to take root in rural Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130948/original/image-20160718-2122-1b1q13s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-cost private schooling isn't accessible to children in Nigeria's rural areas.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a walk through the slums of Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, or its economic heartland, Lagos, you’ll learn something about the country’s education system today: low-cost private schools are everywhere. </p>
<p>They’re small and often occupy ramshackle buildings, but they cater for the <a href="http://www.esspin.org/resources/reports/lagos">vast majority</a> of children in Lagos, and appear to be doing so in Abuja’s slums too. These schools far outnumber government institutions in such settlements. A Lagos or Abuja slum will usually have just one government school compound; not enough to cater for all the children in the catchment area. </p>
<p>This development isn’t unique to Nigeria. Low-fee private schools are <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21660113-private-schools-are-booming-poor-countries-governments-should-either-help-them-or-get-out">on the rise</a> in India, Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Even when a government provides free universal primary education, many parents will still choose to pay because they believe private schooling gives their children a better chance for learning – or because the government school is just too far to walk to. </p>
<p>Nigerians in cities have some choices about where to school their children. But what about their counterparts in the country’s expansive rural areas? Research I’ve conducted <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050068.2016.1142737">finds</a> that it’s <a href="http://www.esspin.org/resources/reports/kwara">very rare</a> for children in rural areas to have any access to private schooling. Instead they are forced to rely on poor quality, poorly resourced government schools.</p>
<h2>What’s happening in Kwara State</h2>
<p>Nigeria’s population was estimated at more than 182 million in 2015. Its rural population accounts for <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL">just over half</a>.</p>
<p>I conducted a study for the UK Department for International Development’s Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria while living in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State. Kwara is one of Nigeria’s poorest and least-known states. It doesn’t enjoy the same prosperity as the south-west yet neither does it struggle with intractable problems such as those of the north-east or the Niger Delta. </p>
<p>With a team of fieldworkers I set out to find out how many private schools had popped up in Ilorin, the state’s largest urban centre, focusing on and reaching every part of Ilorin West Local Government Area. We wanted to contrast this with what we would find in Kwara’s remote rural areas, choosing Baruten in the state’s north-west and Ifelodun in the south-east. To do so, we walked through town to reach the most hidden corners, and drove long distances in the country, exploring all the villages we could find. </p>
<p>The condition of Kwara’s government education system was abysmal at the start of our work in the state. An <a href="http://www.esspin.org/resources/reports/kwara">assessment</a> conducted in 2008, three years before our fieldwork, found that fewer than half of one percentage point of the state’s teachers could pass a test of primary grade 4 level material.</p>
<p>Some parents have been increasingly responding to this low quality by pulling their children out of government education in favour of relatively low-fee private schools. This was especially true in urban Ilorin. But there were barely any low-fee private schools in the rural areas we studied. </p>
<h2>Hardly any market</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are far more low-fee private schools in Kwara State’s urban centres than in its rural areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found 294 low-fee private schools in urban Ilorin. Only a third of these were known to the government’s Ministry of Education.</p>
<p>The situation was very different in the rural areas. We drove for endless kilometres on unbelievably rough roads with no form of public transportation, from remote village to remote village. In Baruten and Ifelodun combined we found about a third of the number we’d located in just one large part of Ilorin.</p>
<p>In most villages people didn’t even know what a private school was. They usually simply directed us to the only village school: that provided by the government.</p>
<p>In the same year, Nigeria carried out a nationally representative household survey with the support of USAID. It <a href="https://www.eddataglobal.org/household/index.cfm?fuseaction=showDatasetDir&A2=NG">found</a> that just 9.3% of all rural children were attending private schools in Kwara State. The figure was 58% for urban children. Starker still: 1.5% of those children who fall in the poorest 40% of Kwara’s population were attending private school. The figure was 80% among the richest 20% of children. </p>
<p>Neither my study’s findings nor those of the representative household survey are surprising. There is simply virtually no market for private schooling in remote rural areas of this Nigerian state.</p>
<p>Why is this the case?</p>
<h2>Geography and poverty</h2>
<p>Part of the reason is geographical. Kwara is sparsely populated. At the time of our study there were just 80 people per square kilometre. Contrast that with another area that <a href="http://www.create-rpc.org/pdf_documents/PTA23.pdf">I’ve studied</a>, rural western Uttar Pradesh in India. This had 820 people per square kilometre at about the same time and many private schools alongside those run by the government.</p>
<p>Low-fee private schools are essentially businesses. They need to cover their costs: teachers’ salaries, basic materials and infrastructure, and a salary for the head of the school who is usually also the proprietor. So if there are relatively few children in a village and some are going to government school – which are relatively plentiful in these rural areas – then in most places there are simply too few children to support a private school’s existence. There are often too few children to support the existence of more than one of any type of school.</p>
<p>The second and biggest reason for the lack of growth in Kwara’s private schooling landscape is poverty.</p>
<p>A poor child in Kwara is lucky to go to school at all. The household survey showed that two-thirds of ten- to 16-year-olds in the poorest 40% had never been enrolled in any school. The indications are that fee-paying options are no solution for the very poor. And there is therefore no market logic for private operators.</p>
<h2>Where to improve the system</h2>
<p>So how can the absence of access to quality education for rural Nigerians be addressed?</p>
<p>The most equitable action would involve fixing government schools – while at the same time leaving existing private schools to just get on with what they are doing. The government needs to concentrate its resources on reaching the poor and remote. Quality simply must be improved to make accessing government schools appear worthwhile.</p>
<p>There are aspects of private school management, staffing and teaching methods that currently failing government systems could usefully adopt. </p>
<p>These include, wherever possible, hiring local people who are part of the community. They’ll have a greater understanding of their neighbours, and be more accountable. They’ll also be used to living in tough rural conditions and won’t miss classes because they’re relying on public transport from elsewhere.</p>
<p>If they are not so knowledgeable, and maybe not qualified teachers (just like existing government teachers), these people can be supported with extensive materials to boost their teaching. The Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria has already drawn on this approach in its work with government school teachers by developing set lesson plans for all teachers to use. On-paper qualifications should not be everything: many of Kwara’s failing teachers tested in 2008 were formally qualified.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Härmä received funding from the UK Department for International Development to conduct this research.</span></em></p>It’s unusual for children in Nigeria’s rural areas to have any access to private schooling, even if it’s of the low-cost variety. They must rely instead on poorly resourced government schools.Joanna Härmä, Visiting Research Fellow in Education, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/576482016-05-31T19:46:52Z2016-05-31T19:46:52ZWhy education departments should be broken up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124534/original/image-20160531-13794-1udgfa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Should the government both manage and regulate school systems in Australia?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education has emerged as an important election issue. As always, people are arguing about how much money should be spent on it. But should funding really be at the heart of the debate?</p>
<p>Australia already spends lots of money on education. National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the My School website, and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) analysis are giving taxpayers more information (such as student gains in subject areas) of the quality of the output of the education system.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-more-money-for-schools-improve-educational-outcomes-57656">trends are mixed</a>, the data reinforces the view that we may not be getting very good value for our money. Among other things, international comparisons are <a href="https://theconversation.com/ideas-for-australia-why-is-australia-falling-behind-in-maths-science-and-literacy-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-56267">significantly less favourable</a> now and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-change-the-way-we-measure-student-progress-in-schools-56422">achievement gap continues to grow</a>. </p>
<p>We cannot really make that judgement, however, because we do not have enough information on the inputs to the system such as school provision, school governance, nor if system design principles are adhered to.</p>
<p>Take the example of the right to a local school. It is virtually impossible to judge on the basis of public data whether we have enough schools, or whether they are in the right locations. This is one of the biggest areas of public expenditure but is a virtual black hole for data.</p>
<p>This comes down to how the state departments of education operate. These are huge bureaucracies spending hundreds of millions of dollars. </p>
<p>It is hard to see how citizens can get any insight into their decisions given the current structures.</p>
<p>Education departments make policy, allocate funds, build schools, operate the largest players in the field, public schools, and act as regulators as well. </p>
<p>This bundle involves multiple conflicts of interest because the departments operate the public education system but also regulate the public, the Catholic and the independent school systems.</p>
<p>One ironic consequence is that this strengthens the hand of the non-government operators. </p>
<p>They have spokespeople and lobbyists who can push their case to government while it is not clear the public education system gets a similar hearing.</p>
<h2>Operation and regulation need to be separated</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.au/%7E/media/Treasury/Publications%20and%20Media/Publications/2015/Government%20response%20to%20the%20Competition%20Policy%20Review/Downloads/PDF/Govt_response_CPR.ashx">recent Competition Policy Review</a> argued that the structure was fundamentally inappropriate. It laid down some very clear principles. These included that “governments should retain a stewardship function, separating the interests of policy (including funding), regulation and service delivery”.</p>
<p>The implication is that education departments need to be broken up. Responsibility for the operation of public schools needs to be separated from the policy making and regulatory functions and put into a separate authority. This will have a wide range of benefits.</p>
<p>With the establishment of an authority for public schools at arm’s length from the department, each sector would finally be structured equivalently and able to compete more openly. </p>
<h2>Increasing transparency and accountability</h2>
<p>Each sector could also be assessed for the quality of the service it delivers in a much more open and transparent way and held to account if necessary.</p>
<p>Having a single entity responsible for the delivery of public school education would also open the way for other avenues of review. </p>
<p>The Auditor-General would be able to assess the value being delivered by benchmarking the state system against the others. </p>
<p>An office of the education ombudsman for all school systems, or education services more broadly, could also be established to consider concerns raised by people. Both would increase transparency and accountability.</p>
<p>In their role as stewards, policymakers could be assessed with PISA, NAPLAN and school-level data for the overall performance of the system without distractions from operational considerations. </p>
<p>As parents and taxpayers, we could ask whether the education system as a whole was performing well. Education already absorbs a large share of tax revenue; we have to make sure it is used well.</p>
<p>The government has <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/human-services">commissioned a review</a> of the delivery of human services by the Productivity Commission following the recommendation of the Competition Policy Review. It will focus on the two big areas – education and health.</p>
<p>We can expect the review to reinforce the messages from the Competition Policy Review. As a result Australia might have a sensible governance model for its education system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodney Maddock is a Director of CEDA and Lea Campbell is affiliated with Our Children, Our Schools. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lea Campbell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Responsibility for the operation of public schools needs to be separated from the policymaking and regulatory functions and put into a separate authority.Rodney Maddock, Vice Chancellor's Fellow at Victoria University and Adjunct Professor of Economics, Monash UniversityDr Lea Campbell, Internships Coordinator, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/572752016-04-07T04:38:38Z2016-04-07T04:38:38ZIf not Gonski funding, then what?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117637/original/image-20160406-28945-jmjjbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The education system can do more to meet the needs of individual children.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gearing up for an election battle over education, Labor’s policy pledges a substantial lift in funding through the final two years of Gonski, while the Liberals maintain that funding is not linked with improved results. </p>
<p>The government has not clearly indicated that needs-based, sector-blind funding is a priority going forward.</p>
<p>Some children need additional resources to succeed at school. Not all schools need more money, but some clearly do.</p>
<p>It is not a question about <a href="http://www.shankerinstitute.org/resource/does-money-matter">whether to invest</a> in bold and meaningful education policy, but how to invest, where it is needed, and in the areas that are proven to have impact.</p>
<p>We need governments to settle on an effective, sustainable and equitable approach to funding education, with bold policy decisions that target resources where they have the greatest impact.</p>
<p>The priorities are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>clarifying the purpose of education</p></li>
<li><p>reducing the inequalities that appear long before children arrive at school </p></li>
<li><p>recognising and responding to the fundamental connection between learning and wellbeing.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Clarity about the purpose of education</h2>
<p>Current approaches to education <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-students-are-becoming-increasingly-disengaged-at-school-heres-why-51570">are not engaging</a> for too many young people, nor are they adequately preparing young people to meet Australia’s future workforce needs.</p>
<p>Young people will go on to do jobs not yet invented, using technologies not now developed and with patterns of working life we are not yet able to predict. </p>
<p>Literacy and numeracy are necessary but not sufficient preparation for young people. Education needs to equip students not just with knowledge, but with the <a href="https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/geoff-masters/article/big-five-challenges-in-school-education">skills, capabilities and attributes</a> they will need to use that knowledge effectively. </p>
<p>Flexible, individualised and evidence-informed teaching and learning should develop student capabilities, tap into young people’s passions and interests and apply knowledge in the real world. Some schools are doing this well, but it must be the norm and not the exception. </p>
<p>Teachers matter for children’s outcomes; they must be skilled and supported to <a href="http://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/">meet the learning needs</a> of all the children they teach.</p>
<p>Schools do significantly better on <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/opinion/how-well-are-schools-incorporating-capabilities-into-the-curriculum">standardised tests</a> when they actively cultivate capabilities alongside subject knowledge.</p>
<p>Failing to drive innovation through and within education is a significant risk for the future, for individuals and for the social and economic prosperity of this nation.</p>
<p>Here’s how the government can help improve the education sector:</p>
<h2>Invest early</h2>
<p>Around <a href="http://www.aedc.gov.au/resources/detail/2015-aedc-national-report">63,000 children</a> arrive at school developmentally vulnerable each year. Poverty and disadvantage substantially increase a child’s risk of starting school behind their peers. </p>
<p>Schools must be equipped to help all children progress and achieve regardless of where they start, but it is more <a href="http://jenni.uchicago.edu/human-inequality/papers/Heckman_final_all_wp_2007-03-22c_jsb.pdf">efficient and effective</a> to invest early. </p>
<p>High-quality early education, complemented by evidence-based strategies that support parents to provide a positive <a href="https://www.aracy.org.au/publications-resources/command/download_file/id/274/filename/Better-systems-better-chances.pdf">home learning environment</a>, can help ensure children start school on a more equal footing and deliver a strong return on investment. </p>
<h2>Create school partnerships</h2>
<p>No school can meet all the needs and interests of children on their own. Across the education system strong and <a href="http://ais.act.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/The_shared_work_of_learning_lifting_educational_achievement_through_collaboration.pdf">sustained partnerships</a> with families, communities, industry, researchers and other services are needed to enable schools to respond effectively to learning and wellbeing.</p>
<p>A genuine commitment to needs-based funding recognises the schools that do the heavy lifting when it comes to supporting children with additional needs. This is why funding matters.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.aracy.org.au/publications-resources/command/download_file/id/274/filename/Better-systems-better-chances.pdf">range of factors</a> – poor health, poverty, mental health, substance misuse, family violence – make learning more difficult for many children and young people.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://australianchildwellbeing.com.au/sites/default/files/uploads/ACWP_Final_Report_2016_Full.pdf">recent Australian study</a> found that there are a number of cohorts of marginalised young people who are more likely to go hungry, have poor health, experience bullying, have low engagement in learning and miss school more frequently.</p>
<p>There are proven models for fostering collaboration, like <a href="https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/%7E/media/Files/Research%20and%20Advocacy%20PDFs/Submissions%20page%20PDFs/every-chance-discussion-october2012.ashx">The Smith Family’s</a> school-community hubs and partnerships between business and schools. But collaboration requires sustained investment, enabling governance and leadership. </p>
<p>It will also require a system that allows schools to work together, rather than competing for resources or battling across sector lines.</p>
<p>Wellbeing cannot be separated from educational attainment and must be part of the investment plan for education.</p>
<h2>What happens if we don’t improve the system?</h2>
<p>The consequence is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-we-change-the-way-we-measure-student-progress-in-schools-56422">widening gap</a> in the life chances for those who do not have the opportunity to develop essential skills and capabilities – and the potential for enormous downstream social and economic costs from lost human capital.</p>
<p>About <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Educational-opportunity-in-Australia-2015-Who-succeeds-and-who-misses-out-19Nov15.pdf">a quarter</a> of students are missing out at each pivotal educational milestone. </p>
<p>Australia’s performance in international benchmarking tests is declining. We have fewer high performers and more low performers. Disadvantage is having a larger impact on educational outcomes than it used to.</p>
<p>We can’t keep thinking about this equity issue as a problem with particular groups of students, parents, teachers or schools. It is a system problem.</p>
<p>The education system can do more to meet the needs of individual children and to <a href="https://prezi.com/oypau5txdnwi/wef-2016-skills-for-life/">build the capabilities</a> young people will need to thrive in the modern world. </p>
<p>If governments are serious about addressing these problems and ensuring future prosperity, they can’t ignore the evidence any longer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is not a question about whether to invest in bold and meaningful education policy, but how to invest, where it is needed, and in the areas that are proven to have impact.Stacey Fox, Policy Fellow, Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityMegan O'Connell, Policy program director, Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/571022016-04-01T05:25:21Z2016-04-01T05:25:21ZSplit funding idea for schools has big risks and few clear benefits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117063/original/image-20160401-14145-1a0jt83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The government's proposal looks like nothing more than a cost shifting exercise.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Less than two days before meeting with the Premiers at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull lobbed an innovative idea on the table. </p>
<p>The Federal government would cease funding for public schools, but continue supporting non-government schools.</p>
<p>But the fact that an idea is innovative does not make it worthwhile. </p>
<p>This proposal appears to be a response to a budgetary problem, not a way to improve educational outcomes. It is just not clear what educational problem it is intended to fix. </p>
<p>If the Prime Minister had proposed that all funding would run through one level of government, we would have an interesting debate on our hands. (In practice, only states could feasibly do this, since Canberra has neither the will nor the skill to run or oversee the 10,000 schools spread across Australia.)</p>
<p>But this is not the proposal he has taken to COAG. </p>
<p>Instead, he is proposing to stop federal funding to government schools, shifting $5 billion off the books of the federal budget, in return for giving states a share of income tax. </p>
<p>The kicker is that he does not trust states with non-government schools, and wants Canberra to keep control. </p>
<p>Given how this has been introduced, do he and education minister Simon Birmingham really expect states to keep chipping in the $3 billion they spend each year on non-government schools? </p>
<p>Dale Kerrigan in the great Australian battler movie <em>The Castle</em> would have an answer: “tell ‘em they’re dreamin’”.</p>
<h2>What is the situation today?</h2>
<p>There is no doubt that Australia has educational problems. </p>
<p>In the last month alone, major concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of Australian schooling from <a href="https://www.cis.org.au/app/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/2016/03/rr11.pdf">the right</a>, <a href="http://cpd.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/School-Daze-4.pdf">the left</a>, and <a href="http://grattan.edu.au/report/widening-gaps/">the centre</a>. </p>
<p>The OECD also weighed in <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/oecd-education-chief-andreas-schleicher-blasts-australias-education-system-20160313-gnhz6t.html">last week</a>. Referring to the international PISA tests, OECD education director Andreas Schleicher said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Australia has lost a lot of students with very good results, it’s very significant this round and I think that’s something to really think about.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Something must change</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22library%2Fprspub%2F366868%22">history</a> of school funding in Australia is long, complex and messy. </p>
<p>Many saw the 2011 Gonski <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf">Review of Funding for Schooling</a> as a new beginning, with its focus on needs-based, sector-blind funding for all students. </p>
<p>But the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/coalition-joins-labors-gonski-unity-ticket/story-fn59niix-1226690519042">“unity ticket”</a> declared by the then opposition leader Tony Abbott before the election was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-27/government-denies-breaking-election-promise-on-school-funding/5119204">not to last</a>.</p>
<p>As of today, each of the school sectors receives different levels of funding from federal and state governments, as well as private funding. </p>
<p>The $50 billion government spend on schools in 2013-14 was split about 70:30 between states and territories (A$36 billion) and the Federal government ($14 billion). </p>
<p>The split differs by school sector: the federal government funds only 13% of the $38 billion spent on government schools, but 74% of the $12 billion that governments spend on non-government schools. </p>
<p>Even worse, the deals and the details are different in each state and territory. </p>
<p>Funding of Australian schools is an opaque mess. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117053/original/image-20160401-28451-1vdrv42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adapted from Connors, L. and McMorrow, J., Imperatives in schools funding, ACER, 2015, Figure 1.2</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What impact would divided funding have?</h2>
<p>The proposal has been introduced too suddenly for a full analysis. But here are some of the early arguments.</p>
<p><strong>Improving accountability</strong></p>
<p>The education minister has claimed that the new arrangements would improve accountability. States deliver education services. Giving them responsibility to raise the revenue for schooling might mean they make more effective spending decisions. </p>
<p>This holds some weight, and would definitely hold true if one level of government had responsibility for all education funding as well as managing schools. But this is not what is on the table. In fact, accountability would be more divided than before, and cooperation between sectors would be even harder.</p>
<p><strong>Allocating resources</strong></p>
<p>Resource allocation will also be harder than today. Effective spending decisions means channelling resources to where they will make the biggest difference. But in the new model, each level of government will have an incomplete picture of which students are thriving, and which are struggling. </p>
<p>Relying on federal-state relations for priority setting and allocating resources is very dangerous. Coordinating eight different state and territory funding approaches with a national formula for non-government schools will be an administrative nightmare. Or perhaps coordinating funding decisions is not even on the table, a more terrifying thought. </p>
<p><strong>Warped incentives</strong></p>
<p>Bizarre incentives arise when different levels of government support different school systems. State governments would save money if students moved out of government schools. The federal government could cut costs if more students went into the government system. </p>
<p><strong>Bureaucracy backfire?</strong></p>
<p>Worst of all is if the premiers call the PM’s bluff, leaving Canberra to fully-fund non-government schools. </p>
<p>Given Turnbull is signalling that states can’t be trusted to act in the interests of the non-government sector, why wouldn’t they? </p>
<p>State governments might then step back from regulating non-government schools (for example, teacher registration or accrediting new schools), given they provide no funding. </p>
<p>Canberra would have to pick up the pieces, ending up with more bureaucracy rather than less. This would be a terrible outcome. Federal policy makers know little about regulating service delivery.</p>
<h2>This is not education reform</h2>
<p>There is no chance of sector-neutral funding decisions under the proposed arrangements. The model is deeply divisive. Even as the government says it supports needs-based funding, the hope created by the Gonski report would be dead, buried, and cremated.</p>
<p>The proposed split funding arrangement is not education reform. It has big risks, and few if any clear benefits. </p>
<p>It looks like nothing more than a cost shifting exercise by a federal government in desperate need of fiscal repair. It distracts from the main game: increasing learning progress for all students.</p>
<h2>School education is an investment, not just a cost</h2>
<p>High-performing countries view education as an investment, not as a cost. This proposal appears to take the opposite view. But it is penny-wise, pound-foolish. </p>
<p>Failing to educate all young Australians will have a much higher cost in future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Goss is School Education Program Director at Grattan Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Sonnemann is School Education Fellow at Grattan Institute.</span></em></p>The prime minister’s proposal to cease federal funding for public schools is a response to a budgetary problem, not a way to improve educational outcomes.Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteJulie Sonnemann, Research fellow, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/557582016-03-31T19:10:01Z2016-03-31T19:10:01ZSingle-sex vs coeducational schools: how parents can decide the best option for their child<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116721/original/image-20160330-28476-o8slfq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows that teachers are one of the main factors influencing a student's learning outcomes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents often face conflicting advice when deciding whether to send their child to a single-sex or coeducational school. </p>
<p>Despite the lack of evidence, there remains a strong and <a href="http://www.myschool.com.au/page/single-sex-vs-coeducational#.VvtSN-L5iUk">widely held belief</a> that single-sex schooling is better for girls and coeducation is better for boys. </p>
<p>There are more single-sex schools for girls than for boys in each of the three Australian educational sectors: government, Catholic and independent. </p>
<p>As a consequence, more boys than girls are enrolled in some coeducational schools.</p>
<p>So as a parent, how do you decide which school is best for your child? And, importantly, what do you actually want out of a school? For example, is the focus on achieving good grades, or about making sure your child fits in and feels accepted?</p>
<p>There is no straightforward answer, but research has revealed there are some key things to consider when choosing a school which might help determine where to send your child. </p>
<h2>Single-sex or co-ed school?</h2>
<p>The single-sex versus coeducation debate in Australia has a long history. Public perceptions can be skewed by the media which, in presenting a view, have a tendency to cherry-pick research findings, <a href="http://www.aare.edu.au/publications-database.php/5366/Research-versus-the-media:-Mixed-or-single-gender-settings?">or simplify issues by ignoring the complexities</a>. </p>
<p>To date, here’s what we know:</p>
<p>Government schools are predominantly coeducational. Around <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4221.0">65%</a> of Australian students attend these schools, which also tend to have <a href="http://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?tag=judith-gill">higher percentages of disadvantaged students</a> than in non-government schools. </p>
<p>While <a href="http://bettereducation.com.au/Results/vce.aspx?yr=2015">data show</a> that non-government schools tend to have higher academic success than government schools, a determining factor for this relates to the socio-economic (SES) status of students. <a href="http://www.nap.edu.au/results-and-reports/national-reports.html">NAPLAN data reveal</a> that higher SES correlates directly with higher NAPLAN scores.</p>
<h2>Single-sex schools</h2>
<p>Most of Australia’s single-sex schools are found in the fee-paying non-government sector. This means that financially secure parents have a wider choice of schools open to them.</p>
<p>Of the small number of single-sex schools in the government sector, many are academically selective.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2007/for07148.pdf">Research</a> suggests that girls who attend single-sex schools are more confident about themselves as learners in subjects such as mathematics and physics than in coeducational schools. In the absence of boys, the girls also feel less constrained in engaging in classroom discussions.</p>
<p>For boys attending single-sex or coeducational schools, their confidence levels in physics and mathematics are found to be equally high, and they boisterously engage in classroom discourse.</p>
<p>However, there is <a href="https://www.minnpost.com/sites/default/files/attachments/rtx120100010p-2.pdf">no consistent evidence</a> to show that students – either boys or girls – achieve higher grades in single-sex than in coeducational settings. </p>
<h2>Coeducational schools</h2>
<p>It is socialisation, readiness for the real world, that is seen as <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/coed-or-singlesex-canberra-grammar-the-armidale-school-lasalle-catholic-college-and-all-saints-make-the-leap/news-story/86ae62a3bccec3c190ddad51d6293589">a major advantage of coeducational schooling for boys</a>. </p>
<p>While boys may learn to develop healthy relationships, and value and respect girls, this is less likely to occur in single-sex boys’ schools. For many former boys’ schools that have become coeducational, this is one of the reasons put forward for the change, often together with economic viability considerations.</p>
<p>Girls in coeducational schools may learn similar social lessons. But they may also learn something else that advocates of single-sex schools for girls claim is not found in these schools: that what they say in class, for example, is not always respected, and that teachers may hold different expectations of girls and boys, particularly in subject areas that are considered more suitable for males, including mathematics, physics and IT. But this need not be the case. </p>
<h2>Academic success is driven by good teachers</h2>
<p>What <a href="https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf">research does show</a> is that teachers are the most influential factor that can make the difference in students’ learning outcomes.</p>
<p><a href="/www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/docs/pdf/qt_hattie.pdf">Research</a> by education professor John Hattie in 2003 showed that many interrelated factors affect students’ learning outcomes, including: the students themselves, their home backgrounds, schools, principals, the peer group and teachers.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It is what teachers know, do and care about which is very powerful in this learning equation.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Schools that provide support for novice teachers, encourage teachers to be risk-takers in the classroom, and actively support professional development and higher-degree studies are likely to develop a strong, loyal, collaborative, dedicated and hard-working staff, and students are the beneficiaries.</p>
<h2>What should parents do?</h2>
<p>There’s no denying that selecting a school is a difficult decision for parents to make.</p>
<p>Schools run in a highly competitive market for enrolments, and advertising is often targeted at the emotional concerns parents have for their offspring. </p>
<p>But parents know their children better than anyone else. When deciding on the best school, there are many factors to consider including, for example, location, student population diversity, curriculum and co-curricular offerings, music and sporting facilities, library and IT access, discipline policy, academic reputation etc. </p>
<p>A single-sex or coeducational learning setting should not be the only consideration. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.goodschools.com.au/">Good Schools Guide</a> and the <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/">My School</a> websites provide information on when schools hold open days. One of the best things parents can do is have a good look around schools and ask <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/open-schools-help-parents-learn-20140328-35ol6.html">probing questions</a> about the issues and concerns of importance to them and their child.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In the past, Helen Forgasz has received funding from the Australian Research Council to explore gender issues in mathematics and IT education. A recent grant from the Alliance of Girls Schools of Australasia will be used to determine the longer term outcomes of single-sex (and coeducational) schooling on women's participation in STEM-related careers. </span></em></p>There is no straightforward answer, but research shows there are some key things to consider when choosing a school which might help determine where to send your child.Helen Forgasz, Professor of Education, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/538122016-01-29T00:14:20Z2016-01-29T00:14:20ZLabor has put Gonski back on the table, but should we be excited?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109553/original/image-20160128-27140-19z99ec.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor has announced it would fully fund Gonski if it wins government.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the most comprehensive review of school education funding for over 40 years, followed by an exhaustive Senate <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/School_Funding/School_Funding/Report/index">inquiry</a> in 2014 – it looks like <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">Gonski</a> is once again back on the table. </p>
<p>Labor <a href="https://theconversation.com/bill-shorten-promises-labor-would-implement-the-full-gonski-53815">has announced</a> it would commit to fully funding Gonski, with a reform package costing A$37.3 billion over the next decade.
But is this actually what the <a href="http://www.betterschools.gov.au/review">Gonski review</a> recommended?</p>
<p>Additional money recommended by the Gonski review was meant to go to schools with the most in need: Indigenous, rural and remote, disabled and socio-economically disadvantaged students. </p>
<p>Instead it has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">left to the states</a> and the Catholic and independent school systems to distribute this money.</p>
<h2>Gonski timeline</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?tag=alan-reid">future</a> of public education in Australia is at stake. Funding policies have for too long neglected the concept of need and foregrounded the principle of entitlement. This has led to increasing amounts of public money going to private schools, with a consequent expansion of that sector at the expense of public education.</p>
<p>Under current Coalition government policy, we have <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/School_Funding/School_Funding/Report/%7E/media/Committees/Senate/committee/schoolfund_ctte/report/d02.pdf">continued to see</a> an increasingly privatised education system. </p>
<p>Previous federal minister Christopher Pyne is on the <a href="http://www.csa.edu.au/resources/csnpf-2014/ministers-address-christopher-pyne">record</a> as stating that “we have a particular responsibility for non-government schooling that we don’t have for government schooling.</p>
<p>"The emotional commitment within the federal government is to continue to have a direct relationship with the non-government schools sector. I think the states and territories would prefer that as well.”</p>
<p>The Liberal Party has consistently rejected the Gonski review conclusion that increased spending leads to improved education outcomes in relation to socio-economic disadvantage. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull recently <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-schools-plan-sneaky-mean-tricky-andrews-government-20151229-glw8gj.html">stated</a>: “Funding is important, but there is a lot more to it [improved student achievement]. The key element is teacher quality.” </p>
<p>The conservative side of politics <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3899668.htm">believes</a> there is no equity problem to address in Australian education. The Liberal Party relies on conservative researchers’ <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-29/donnelly-bill-shorten-has-backed-the-flawed-gonski-model/7123588">evidence</a> denying any causal link between socioeconomic status and student academic outcomes.</p>
<p>The best-performing education systems are those that combine <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-equity-debate-a-fair-go-for-australian-schools-5609">equity</a> with quality. They give all children opportunities for a quality education. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109554/original/image-20160128-27177-1r0jnbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109554/original/image-20160128-27177-1r0jnbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109554/original/image-20160128-27177-1r0jnbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109554/original/image-20160128-27177-1r0jnbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109554/original/image-20160128-27177-1r0jnbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109554/original/image-20160128-27177-1r0jnbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109554/original/image-20160128-27177-1r0jnbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia has a significant gap between its highest- and lowest-performing students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dan Peled</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why the funding is needed</h2>
<p>Educational failure imposes high costs on society. Poorly educated people limit economies’ capacity to produce, grow and innovate. School failure damages social cohesion and mobility, and imposes additional costs on public budgets to deal with the consequences – higher spending on public health and social support and greater criminality, among others. </p>
<p>For all these reasons, improving equity in education and reducing school failure should be a high priority in all OECD education policy agendas.</p>
<p>Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham <a href="http://www.educatoronline.com.au/breaking-news/govt-responds-to-labors-gonski-pledge-211112.aspx">repeats</a> the furphy that state and federal spending on schools grew by more than 100% in real terms between 1987-88 and 2011-12. This clever accounting includes the massive boost to school building programs that was part of the Labor government’s response to the world fiscal meltdown.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.mceetya.edu.au/mceecdya/anr/">National Reports on Schooling</a> in Australia show that government spending per student in Australia was A$8,115 in 1999-2000 ($11,731 in 2012) and $13,544 in 2008-09 ($14,637 in 2012). That is a real increase of only 24.7%. Over the same period government expenditure on education as a percentage of total government expenditure in Australia fell from 14.2% to 12.9%.</p>
<p>According to World Bank <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS">figures</a>, Australia’s spend on education as a proportion of GDP, around 5%, has <a href="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/public-spending-on-education-total-percent-of-gdp-wb-data.html">remained constant</a> over that time.</p>
<p>Yet Australia has gone backwards in absolute and relative terms, including in international literacy and numeracy rankings. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, the performance of Australian students in international assessments has <a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-tests-show-pms-2025-education-goal-is-in-doubt-11292">declined</a> at all levels of achievement compared to international benchmarks. At the same time we have witnessed a <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-gonski-gone-we-can-expect-more-demand-for-private-schools-52760">massive shift</a> in federal and state funds to the private sector of schooling. </p>
<p>The proportion of Australia’s lowest-performing students are in danger of not meeting minimum standards of achievement.</p>
<p>Australia has a significant gap between its highest- and lowest-performing students; far greater than in many OECD countries. The <a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/programs/pathways/youthpartnerships/Schooling%20Challenges%20and%20Opportunities.pdf">link</a> between low levels of achievement and educational disadvantage, particularly among students from low socioeconomic and Indigenous backgrounds, is well accepted by most researchers. </p>
<h2>A fairer system?</h2>
<p>It’s important to remember that this money comes from all taxpayers, including the 1.4 million workers on a minimum wage who are supporting well-funded private schools. </p>
<p>With 80% of disadvantaged children attending government schools around the country, it is therefore no surprise that these teachers are struggling to overcome generational poverty and disadvantage.</p>
<p>While Commonwealth funding for non-government schools rose from around $3.50 for each dollar spent on public schools to around $5 between 1997 and 2007, in the past decade government funding to independent schools has increased by <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/elite-schools-with-huge-profits-shouldnt-get-generous-funding/story-fn56aaiq-1226013788272">112%</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, Canberra now gives more money to private schools than it does to universities – more than $36 billion in federal funds went to non-government schools in the period 2009-2013. Recent <a href="http://insidestory.org.au/closing-the-wrong-gaps">research</a> predicts that most Catholic schools will soon receive more public money per student than public schools.</p>
<p>Federal government funding for high-fee private schools is <a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/funding/fee-and-funding-increases-give-elite-private-schools-a-massive-resource-advantage">six to ten times</a> greater than the additional funding provided to disadvantaged schools.</p>
<h2>Labor’s commitment to funding education</h2>
<p>Despite being touted as “school funding reform”, the opposition’s announcement in fact merely maintained the status quo. What was needed was a bolder political ambition for a fairer system, one that doesn’t take from the poor to give to the rich.</p>
<p>But the goal of a fairer Australia, at least, has been hampered from the start. </p>
<p>Once the Gillard government committed to the Catholic and independent school lobbies that not one of their schools would lose a single dollar under the reforms, the opportunity for a fairer, genuine needs-based school funding system was lost.</p>
<p>We <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/specials/saul/eight.htm">have to ask</a>, can we remain a functioning democracy without a strong public education system?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Zyngier receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>Labor has announced it will commit to fully funding Gonski, with a reform package costing $37.3 billion over the next decade.
But is this actually what the Gonski review recommended?David Zyngier, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/532962016-01-21T19:18:36Z2016-01-21T19:18:36ZShould you worry about a schools shortage? It really depends on where you live<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108823/original/image-20160121-9766-cjptwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most of the new schools needed will be primary schools. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s population is booming. With it will come more school students – an estimated 650,000 more by 2026, an increase of 17% from today. Many new schools will be needed. Planning new schools is a long-term game: a child born today will start school in 2021 and complete year 12 in 2033.</p>
<p>How well are our planners doing? Will there be a shortage of school places? As a parent or a prospective parent, should you worry? The answer depends very much on where you live.</p>
<p>High-level demographic analysis can help us see the big trends. However, the issues can be very local, including how full your local schools are now, and school zoning regulations.</p>
<h2>How many new schools, and how much will they cost?</h2>
<p>To accommodate these extra 650,000 students, some 400 to 750 new schools will be needed. (Currently, there are about 9,400 schools in Australia.) Most will be primary schools – about 250 to 500. </p>
<p>Between two-thirds and three-quarters are likely to be government schools, with the remainder being either Catholic or Independent. </p>
<p>It costs about A$15 million to build a relatively standard primary school and more than twice as much for a secondary school. State governments will therefore need to find about A$6-11 billion to build government schools, close to a billion dollars every year on average. This is on top of the costs of maintaining existing schools. </p>
<p>At least in New South Wales this will mean a big uplift in investment. It has been <a>reported</a> that the NSW public school system is facing a A$7 billion shortfall in infrastructure spending over the next two decades. </p>
<p>By way of context, governments spent about<a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/5518.0.55.001"> A$41 billion</a> in 2013-14 on running schools.</p>
<h2>Where will the new schools be needed?</h2>
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<p>Over 90% of Australia’s extra students will live in our four large states. </p>
<p>Queensland has the fastest growth rate, followed closely by Victoria. Victoria, NSW and Queensland will all have about 170,000-180,000 new students. Western Australia will have about 60,000 new students. (As an indication of how population estimates can change, the forecast growth rate in Western Australia dropped from 32% in a 2013 ABS projection to 17% in WA’s own projections in 2015.) </p>
<p>Of the smaller jurisdictions, Australian Capital Territory is growing most rapidly. The Northern Territory is next, but the remoteness of many students complicates planning. South Australia is growing more slowly but will still add 30,000 students, while Tasmanian growth is virtually flat.</p>
<p>Longer-term trends also matter, because they affect the mindset of planners. Queensland and Western Australia have had growing populations for decades. By contrast, NSW and Victoria had 20 years of low or no growth in student numbers during the 1990s and 2000s. Many schools were closed and the land was sold off. But student numbers are now set to grow for the foreseeable future. Permanent solutions are needed, not just fleets of portable classrooms.</p>
<h2>How do the issues differ in different locations?</h2>
<p>Growth rates are highly localised, reflecting the development of new suburbs, and evolving patterns of where Australian families live. Using local government area data, I analysed where student population growth will be highest over the coming decade. Different states show very different patterns. </p>
<p>Most of the new schools will be needed in the outer-growth corridors of Sydney, Melbourne and Perth; the big Queensland cities outside Brisbane; and the resurgent inner city of Melbourne and to a lesser extent Sydney. </p>
<p>Each location has different planning issues.</p>
<p>In the outer growth corridors of big cities, communities are being formed from scratch. They are often full of young families, attracted by cheaper housing. But jobs can be scarce and commutes long. Unless good social networks develop, dreams of a better life can turn sour.</p>
<p>Schools play a central role in building community fabric: good schools help new suburbs grow into strong communities. The good news is that governments are very aware of this. Innovative models of primary school are being trialled, including integrated childcare and health facilities.</p>
<p>It helps that buying land for schools in such areas is cheap. However, just keeping up with the growth can be tough. In Wyndham, south-east of Melbourne, 100 new classrooms will be needed every year for the next decade. </p>
<p>Each big Queensland city has different planning issues. Ispwich, west of Brisbane, will have more new students than any other local government area in Australia. While the city itself is long-established, new housing developments are driving massive growth. </p>
<p>The Gold and Sunshine Coasts, have been growing for decades; planners have no excuse if new schools are not factored in. Meanwhile, Queensland’s regional cities are subject much more to local economic cycles, including tourism, construction and mining. This is hard to plan for.</p>
<p>Forecasts of student numbers are most unpredictable in mining boom towns. Unpalatable as it may sound to some, maybe this is the one situation where portable classrooms are the best solution. When the population moves, the classroom can move too. In the best cases, mining companies provide substantial support for community infrastructure.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108819/original/image-20160121-9769-10ixnn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108819/original/image-20160121-9769-10ixnn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108819/original/image-20160121-9769-10ixnn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108819/original/image-20160121-9769-10ixnn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108819/original/image-20160121-9769-10ixnn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108819/original/image-20160121-9769-10ixnn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/108819/original/image-20160121-9769-10ixnn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">For some areas, forecasts of student numbers are highly unpredictable. Portable classrooms may then be the best solution.</span>
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<p>In the inner city, the big issue is the cost and scarcity of land.</p>
<p>Australians are choosing to <a href="http://grattan.edu.au/report/city-limits-why-australias-cities-are-broken-and-how-we-can-fix-them/">live closer to the city</a>, lured by shorter commutes and access to more jobs. Many stay when they have children, especially in Melbourne and Sydney, rather than moving out to the suburbs. (The number of students in inner Brisbane and inner Perth is growing much more slowly.)</p>
<p>Governments have been much worse at planning for the booming number of inner-city children. For example, Melbourne’s Docklands still has<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/wait-goes-on-for-docklands-school-as-government-begins-another-study-20150624-ghws7m.html"> no school</a>. </p>
<p>School spots are also <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/february/1422709200/ceridwen-dovey/schoolyard-crush">scarce</a> in the lower north shore of Sydney. One of the hotspots is the North Ryde Station Urban Activation Precinct, where no new school was planned despite an expected 24,000 new residents moving into the area. At least in that case a previously closed school site is available. </p>
<p>Worse is to come, especially in Melbourne. Melbourne’s five most central local government areas will each see a 30% to 60% increase in student numbers over the next decade. </p>
<p>The mini-baby boom that started in about 2006 will hit secondary schools in 2017 or 2018. Many schools are already overcrowded. Too few new schools are planned, although more are <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/schools-shortage-crisis-hits-victoria-20160113-gm4wzq">reportedly in the pipeline</a>.</p>
<h2>Why does poor planning matter?</h2>
<p>Poor planning is clearly a big issue for parents who struggle to find a local government school for their children. Many feel forced to pay non-government school fees, or travel a long way to access a school.</p>
<p>There is also some evidence that overcrowded schools have a significantly <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OESE/archives/inits/construction/impact2.html">negative impact</a> on student learning.</p>
<p>But it is not just those directly affected who should care. Poor school planning costs taxpayers big bucks, especially in urban redevelopment projects.</p>
<p>A stark example of this is Fisherman’s Bend, Victoria’s largest urban redevelopment. More than twice the size of Docklands, it will eventually require about six to ten government schools. Yet when it was rezoned overnight in 2012, no land was set aside for schools. The price of land has risen fourfold since rezoning.</p>
<p>The Victorian government will have to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to acquire the land for schools. Better planning could have paid for dozens of schools in outer suburbs where land is cheap. This is waste on a massive scale.</p>
<p>Our current decision-making processes are not set up well. Long-term planning plus varied growth rates lead to political issues.</p>
<p>Local politicians in high-growth areas like to announce new schools and cut ribbons – as do education ministers and premiers. </p>
<p>Treasurers who face budget pressures may argue strongly to limit investment. Politicians in slow-growth electorates may be reluctant to see infrastructure money go elsewhere. Short political cycles mean that a minister who decides not to build a school may be long gone by the time it becomes critical.</p>
<p>Local groups have been vocal about the need for new schools in their areas. Increasingly, groups like <a href="http://www.ourchildrenourschools.com.au/">Our Children Our Schools</a> are banding together. Community campaigns are even more effective when backed by hard facts about the number of pre-schoolers or primary students already in the system.</p>
<h2>Should you worry?</h2>
<p>As a current or prospective parent, whether you should worry about school shortages depends entirely on where you live. </p>
<p>Inner-city parents in urban redevelopment zones are the most likely to have problems getting their children into a government school, followed by young families in outer growth corridors.</p>
<p>Many other parents will live in local government areas with low or no growth, and wonder what all the fuss is about.</p>
<p>As a taxpayer, you should definitely worry about whether schools are being planned effectively. Poor planning places a large and unnecessary burden on state budgets.</p>
<p>The way forward is to depoliticise the planning process, in part by increasing the transparency of detailed supply and demand forecasts.</p>
<p>The focus of our politicians should be on how to improve the quality of schooling for every Australian student, not who gets to cut what ribbon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Goss is School Education Program Director with Grattan Institute, a think tank. </span></em></p>Inner-city parents in urban redevelopment zones are the most likely to have problems getting their children into a government school.Peter Goss, School Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/527602016-01-07T01:39:21Z2016-01-07T01:39:21ZWith Gonski gone, we can expect more demand for private schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107339/original/image-20160106-28985-cskh34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The government see private schools as the solution to quality.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government’s decision to end <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">Gonski education reforms</a> is a huge blow to the sector. It means funding for Australian schools is not guaranteed beyond 2017, and leaves Australian <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/29/its-a-no-brainer-if-you-want-school-funding-to-be-needs-based-fund-gonski">states in a funding limbo</a>, not knowing where they stand.</p>
<p>Questions are being asked about where the extra funding will be found. Education minister Simon Birmingham has refused to say whether schools will get the full A$3.8bn in funding initially proposed. We are now looking at a four-year funding period finishing in 2018, rather than the original six-year period. </p>
<p>Birmingham plans to negotiate fresh funding deals with the states from 2018.</p>
<p>The Victorian government has already stated that not funding the last two years of the Gonski deal would take <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/kate-ellis-gonski-cuts-lock-in-tony-abbotts-legacy/news-story/9638319308d1019519dc97b4e900423c">A$1bn from the state’s schools</a>. </p>
<p>Between 2009 and 2013, nationwide government funding for private and Catholic schools <a href="http://www.educatoronline.com.au/news/new-data-spurs-calls-to-save-our-schools-202408.aspx">grew by 23% </a>on a per-student basis, while public funding of government schools grew by just 12.5% over the same period. </p>
<p>In a single year – 2013 – private schools received <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/private-schools-benefit-from-more-than-2-billion-in-government-funding-20151230-glwups.html">A$2.1 billion in Commonwealth government</a> funding, the equivalent of nearly one third of the final two years of the Gonski funding deal, according to Trevor Cobbold, former productivity commission economist.</p>
<h2>Why did the government dump Gonski?</h2>
<p>The decision to dump the Gonski funding represents a retreat from two ideas which have been consistently opposed by Coalition governments.</p>
<p>The first is that there should be a minimum level of resource – whether that’s through teaching hours, funding etc – for all children in Australia, regardless of who they are or where they live. State and Territory should not matter nor should postcode nor school. </p>
<p>Where the amount of per student spending is reached through school fees, that reduces the call on public grants because schools are already adequately resourced. Where schools enrol large proportions of disadvantaged students, that lifts the entitlement. More funding is paid per student to help tackle disadvantage through more intensive support.</p>
<p>The second idea relates to the Commonwealth’s role in achieving this resource standard. </p>
<p>Before the 1960s the Coalition resisted funding government schools on the grounds that schools were a matter for the states. It now wants to retire once more behind a wall of federalism, while leaving itself free to fund the private sector.</p>
<p>If the past performance of federal governments – both Labor and Coalition – is any guide, spending on private schools will <a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/funding/new-figures-show-that-government-funding-for-public-schools-is-down-but-up-for-private-schools">continue to rise</a> at a much faster rate than spending on public schools. </p>
<h2>Impact on states</h2>
<p>Denied adequate Commonwealth funding, states now don’t know where they stand, and are <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/victorian-labor-faces-backlash-over-gonski-school-funding-backdown-20150307-13xuwh.html">likely to retreat</a> from a national resource standard, pleading budgetary pressures.</p>
<p>But for political reasons they will not reduce their funding of private schools. They have a history of keeping the Catholic systems on side and the Catholic bishops have a history of keeping them pliant.</p>
<p>We have seen this with the decision of the Andrews government in 2015 <a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/funding/victorian-govt-betrays-gonski-needs-based-funding-principle">to increase its commitment</a> to private and Catholic schools. This decision was made without regard to the impact it would have on public schools. </p>
<h2>Where does this leave Australian education?</h2>
<p>The key challenge is reducing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-poor-children-perform-more-poorly-than-rich-ones-39281">achievement gap between rich and poor</a>, along with all the consequences that flow from this. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/file_download/93">Almost all schools</a> that serve predominantly poor families in Australia are public schools. There are very few private or Catholic schools across Australia that enrol mainly children from lowest socio-economic backgrounds. In 2011, public schools educated 80% of all students with disabilities and 80% of all indigenous students. </p>
<p>Since few private schools rank in the <a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/file_download/93">lowest fifth band of socio-economic status</a>, the responsibility for raising the achievement of children from poorly-educated, low-income and indigenous families lies largely with the states. </p>
<p>States alone cannot fund the effort required to address achievement differences.
But the Commonwealth can and will outlay more on private schooling for ideological as well as political motives. This will increase social inequality.</p>
<p>Reducing support for government schools and lifting support for non-government schools will fuel demand for Catholic and other private schools, as occurred during the Howard years.</p>
<p>With Gonski gone, we are at risk of giving up the great gains in social cohesion which public schooling delivered during the decades of post-war growth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Teese does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The dumping of Gonski education funding model will inevitably increase social inequality – funding for public schools will reduce while support for private schools increase.Richard Teese, Adjunct Professor of Education, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/481542015-10-08T19:24:20Z2015-10-08T19:24:20ZWhy I’m choosing the local state school – even though it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles<p>Giving parents a choice about where they send their children to school is an important part of the Australian government’s education <a href="http://epx.sagepub.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/content/28/2/306">policy</a>. </p>
<p>The choice is not just private versus public schooling but choice within those types of schooling. Parents can choose from independent schools, Catholic schools, public schools and independent public schools. And in some state systems – such as Queensland – there is no expectation that a parent adheres to the local public school catchment area. </p>
<p>Choice presents a dilemma for parents enrolling their children in school for the first time. It is usually the first major educational transition their children will make.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-no-great-love-for-the-private-path-but-parents-follow-the-money-40376">Research</a> shows most parents would ideally like to send their students to the local state school but are often attracted away by private schools with greater resources and infrastructure – shiny new buildings, sports ovals and equipment.</p>
<p>I am embarking on the enrolment process for my daughter at the moment and I have chosen the local state school. It is a regular, run-of-the-mill, public school down the road from my house. It runs at an average on the My School website, below average on like schools, and it has had a long reputation for being rough. So why have I chosen it?</p>
<h2>The local public primary school reflects the local community</h2>
<p>I love the idea that my daughter will be able to walk to and from school and there will be one less car in the morning and afternoon <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-safest-way-to-walk-to-school-18158">line up</a>. </p>
<p>She will also be walking with other children from the local community and come to know their parents and her neighbours as she passes their houses. She will continue to develop the sense of community that has been shown to be directly linked to life <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1520-6629%28200101%2929:1%3C29::AID-JCOP3%3E3.0.CO;2-C/abstract">satisfaction</a>. </p>
<p>She will also develop links with a community that is multicultural and has multiple family structures. Indigenous issues, NAIDOC Week and Harmony Day may have been <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/phonics-faith-and-coding-for-primary-school-kids/story-fn59nlz9-1227534083014?sv=2f37b94f8cac5b5fff430d9cafd1ef41">removed from the Australian curriculum</a> but the community my daughter grows up in will make it impossible to ignore them. </p>
<p>Her education will teach her that white, middle-class, English-speaking, nuclear families are not the only narrative.</p>
<h2>The local public primary school is a symbol of human rights</h2>
<p>Education is a basic human right and we are lucky to have good quality education for free in Australia. The best way to support public education is to send your child to a public school. </p>
<p>School funding in Australia is divvied up <a>per student</a>. The logical step in that thinking is that the more children attend the local public school, the more funding the school receives.</p>
<p>My local primary school is located in a refugee community. There are more than 80 different nationalities represented. Refugee children bring with them experiences that no child should ever have had to experience. When war has been a part of a child’s life, schooling them is complex and challenging. But this local public school is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-importance-of-teaching-more-than-english-to-refugee-students-31407">important part of their rehabilitation</a>. I choose to support it. </p>
<h2>The local public primary school will help with resilience</h2>
<p>I want my daughter to have resilience. There is a lot of pressure on parents to smooth the way for their <a href="http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=0300066821">children</a> but actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/bulldozer-parents-creating-psychologically-fragile-children-32730">removing the bumps does no favours</a>. It is better to train people to jump their hurdles, rather than take them away. </p>
<p>The lack of bells and whistles at the local state school is a bonus for my child. She will face life in a safe and supportive environment and she will learn to deal with it. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/private-catholic-schools-do-add-value-to-students-results-42543">evidence</a> says that in primary school the school sector has little or no effect on scores. If this is so, then choosing a primary school should not be about just what happens in the classroom, but more about what happens in the wider school community.</p>
<p>The time when parents are looking to enrol their children in school for the first time is a good time to think deeply about education. Conversations about education seem to be fixated on how schools are run rather than the experience that leads to an education. </p>
<p>Education is bigger than the facilities or the scores. When deciding whether a school is right for a child, the whole experience of schooling should be considered. </p>
<p>The best way to make the decision is to have a good think about the ideal educational experience a child can have at school and choose the school that best aligns. The best way to deal with the dilemma of choice is to do the research online and offline, but most importantly in the school community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Barnes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>I am embarking on the enrolment process for my daughter at the moment and I have chosen the local state school. It runs at an average on the My School website, below average on like schools, and it has had a long reputation for being rough. So why have I chosen it?Naomi Barnes, Doctor of Education, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/468142015-08-31T03:45:46Z2015-08-31T03:45:46ZCharter schools would only make our school system’s problems worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/93384/original/image-20150831-17760-o7mmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Introducing a new type of school will only make things worse for Australia's already inequitable system.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/52846207@N04/4962668165/">Matt/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www.cis.org.au/pdf/rr6.pdf">report released today by the Centre for Independent Studies</a> says Australia should establish charter schools. Charter schools are publicly funded but privately operated schools that operate within the terms of a contract or “charter” which reduces what is seen as stifling public sector regulation. In fact, the report goes one step further in proposing Australia adopt for-profit charter schools.</p>
<h2>Does Australia need charter schools?</h2>
<p>The first charters appeared in the US in the early 1990s. They have since spread to England, Sweden, Chile and, most recently, New Zealand. So why not here?</p>
<p>The Centre for Independent Studies’ answer to the question is well researched, comprehensive and seriously misdirected.</p>
<p>The report starts with the widely recognised fact that both international and local standardised testing shows Australian schools making little or no headway on improving performance or reducing inequality. It argues that charters might help, in two ways.</p>
<p>First, charters might take over failing schools in which disadvantaged students are concentrated, and succeed where other approaches have not. And perhaps they would. A closer look at these so-called “conversion” charters is needed. Second, the report also wants “start-up” charters: schools established from scratch to compete with existing schools. </p>
<p>These new entrants, the report argues, might not only boost performance but bring choice to parents who can’t afford fees or who do not want religion-based schooling for their children. Freed from the usual curriculum and staffing requirements, they would also encourage innovation.</p>
<p>Even in the US, where charters first appeared and have grown to around 6% of enrolments, gains have been limited, as the report is careful to acknowledge. In the crucially different Australian setting, it is likely that any improvement that might flow from “conversion” charters would be more than offset by the effects of start-ups.</p>
<p>Most <a href="http://credo.stanford.edu/research-reports.html">US studies</a> suggest that many charters there are no better than the schools they compete with or replace, some are worse and some “outperform”. </p>
<p>Their record in innovation is similarly mixed. Some do use their freedom from the usual rules and regulations to innovate, but most pitch to parents in the same way as Australia’s independent schools. They sell on “traditional” values, curriculum, teaching methods and discipline.</p>
<p>As the report candidly concedes, there is little evidence to suggest that for-profit charters do better than the not-for-profits.</p>
<h2>Australia is a different ball game</h2>
<p>These very equivocal findings provide a less-than-robust platform from which to launch a new kind of school into a system that already has many, but that is not the only problem. The big difficulty is that Australia in 2015 is crucially different from the US in the early 1990s.</p>
<p>The US charters brought choice and competition to a system that had neither. They were an anti-public-school-monopoly measure. The new US charters were not permitted to charge fees, or to discriminate on academic, racial, family income or any other grounds.</p>
<p>Unlike the US, Australia already has a range of ways of organising, funding and running schools. It also has extensive experience of choice and competition, which, in our unique scheme of things, has been a disaster.</p>
<p>The fundamental structural problem is inadvertently uncovered by the report in the course of making out its case that Australian charter schools should be funded to the same level as mainstream public schools, and should be obliged to take all comers. </p>
<p>The obvious question arising: if a level playing field is a good thing within the public sector, why not in the system as a whole?</p>
<p>Around one third of Australian schools are not only permitted to charge fees, but fees up to double the amount spent on the average public school student. They are able to select on academic grounds as well as according to capacity to pay. </p>
<p>This is not just a problem of non-government schools, as is so often supposed. Government systems have joined in via academically selective schools and programs that are in practice socially and ethnically selective as well.</p>
<p>These unique arrangements have set in motion a vicious circle, in which the advantaged choose to go where the advantaged go, leaving behind schools in which the disadvantaged increasingly cluster with the disadvantaged. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.appa.asn.au/content/gonski-report/Review-of-Funding-for-Schooling-Final-Report-Dec-2011.pdf">Gonski</a> pointed out, the substrate of educational inequality in Australia is <a href="http://www.nousgroup.com/images/news_attachments/nous-schoolingchallengesandopportunities_2011.pdf">high and rising</a> social segregation in schooling, and his funding recommendations tackled this structural problem at one of its sources.</p>
<p>There is a case for what might be called deregulation of Australian schools, particularly to permit better ways of staffing and organising educational work, as the charter idea suggests. </p>
<p>But feeding yet more choice and competition into a system that has such distorted forms of both can only compound our problems.</p>
<p>It is a shame that the report did not choose to examine the case for competitive neutrality, for a genuinely level funding and regulatory playing field, as the basis of a more equal and productive Australian school system rather than propose what amounts to the further Balkanisation of an already dysfunctional system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dean Ashenden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Feeding yet more choice and competition into a system that has such distorted forms of both can only compound our problems.Dean Ashenden, Honorary Senior Fellow, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/449172015-08-02T20:08:19Z2015-08-02T20:08:19ZIs your child less likely to be bullied in a private school?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90254/original/image-20150730-22674-1plardw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the data correct that there are fewer bullies in elite schools, or is something else at play? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/foxschumacher/16793504311/">FoxSchumacher/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The most recent Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (<a href="https://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/">HILDA</a>) survey data revealed that twice as many parents of public school students reported their children had been bullied compared to private school parents. </p>
<p>Is it really the case that more bullying occurs in public schools? And should this affect a parent’s choice of school for their child?</p>
<h2>Do these results reflect what’s happening?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.melbourneinstitute.com/downloads/hilda/Stat_Report/statreport_2015.pdf">HILDA</a> tracked a sample of 13,000 households in New South Wales between 2001 and 2012. The data on schools comes from 2012 when participants were asked a range of educational questions. </p>
<p>Households with school-aged children were asked whether or not their child was bullied at school. A higher proportion of parents of children in state schools reported their child was bullied compared with private schools. The differences were greatest for high schools, with 22% of parents at state schools reporting their child was bullied, compared to 15% in Catholic and 11% in other private schools. </p>
<p>So is this information likely to be accurate? There is no reason to suggest the sample is not representative of the NSW population. However, given the question about bullying is based on one question only (with no definition of bullying apparent in the report), it would be useful to draw comparisons with other research. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90257/original/image-20150730-22660-1ocjkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do bullies discriminate by sector?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yum9me/891746029/">Yum9me/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is actually very little research comparing bullying rates at private versus state schools. This is probably because schools are unlikely to agree to take part in research that makes direct comparisons between schools on such a sensitive topic. </p>
<p>There is, however, a similar population sample survey conducted by the US government. In this <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005310">study</a>, parents whose children attended state schools (29%) also reported higher rates of bullying than parents whose children attended private schools (22%). So does this mean an individual child is less likely to be bullied at a private school? </p>
<p>Parents want the best for their child and are attracted to schools that report good data for students on academic, behavioural and social outcomes. But whether your child will have the same experience as children who have gone before depends on whether the results reported are the result of what happens at the school or whether they are inherent to the sample of children who attend the school.</p>
<h2>Misinterpretation of statistics</h2>
<p>A team of New Zealand researchers conducted some <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10734-008-9114-8#page-1">interesting research</a> on individual and school factors affecting students’ academic success at school and later success in tertiary education.</p>
<p>They found the success of a school can be judged by educational programs but not by the demographics of who attends the school. Given general school-leaving results reflect both demography and education programs, they are not a valid measure of a school’s educational quality.</p>
<p>Students’ academic achievement is influenced not only by the educational program a school offers but by what the individual student brings to the school in terms of genetic capability, family support and prior learning. </p>
<p>Almost all state schools are required by law to accept all students in their catchment area. Private schools are not bound by this requirement. Private schools attract a selective population of students whose parents can afford the fees and who are conscientious enough to have enrolled their child many years in advance. </p>
<p>Most private schools also have enrolment applications that exceed their quota, so they can screen for academic ability and behaviour. These schools do not end up with a representative sample of students (and neither do the minority of state schools that have merit entry). </p>
<p>It is therefore a fallacy that we can deduce the relative benefit schools can provide for our child by simply comparing outcome data across schools.</p>
<h2>More at-risk minorities in state schools</h2>
<p>There is no research to my knowledge that examines the differences in effectiveness of private or state schools in preventing or addressing bullying. However, we do know that private schools start with different populations of students from state schools. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the HILDA report shows that family income and the proportion of parents holding university degrees are highest in non-Catholic private schools and lowest in state schools; state schools also have a higher proportion of single parents.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/90258/original/image-20150730-22667-pb70mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are more at-risk minorities in state schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beckywithasmile/5639109917/">Beckywithasmile/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The greater diversity of students at state and private schools results in state schools educating more students at risk of being bullied. Several demographic factors on which state and private schools differ <a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/spq-0000008.pdf">have been found</a> to be <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22795511">relevant to the risk</a> of a child being bullied. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/spq-0000008.pdf">Children with a disability</a> are <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22795511">much more likely</a> to be victims of bullying and violence at school than other students, as are children enrolled in <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2008-17775-001">special education classes</a>. </p>
<p>Parents’ educational level <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10826-013-9820-4">has been found</a> to discriminate bullied from non-bullied children. Children whose father is absent (likely to be more often the case in single-parent families) are also at <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2008-17775-001">greater risk of victimisation</a>.</p>
<p>This suggests that the differences in victimisation between private and state schools may not be due to a higher level of victimisation across all state school students; rather they may reflect a higher proportion of a minority of children who are frequently victimised.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/recurring/report-on-government-services">2015 Productivity Commission report</a> also provides evidence that a much higher proportion of at-risk students attend state rather than private schools. </p>
<p>In 2013, 84% of Indigenous students and 76% of students with a disability attended state schools. Nationally in 2013, the proportion of students with a disability was significantly higher in state schools (6.2%) than in private schools (3.6%).</p>
<p>Around <a href="http://www.eventoffice.com.au/ssl/downloads/NCAB_Program.pdf">10% of children in Australia</a> are bullied on a daily basis. For these frequently bullied children, victimisation tends to be chronic over time. It can <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J008v19n02_03#.VbmTx0KqpBc">continue even when children change schools</a>, which includes crossing from primary to middle or secondary school contexts. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005789414000847">In a study at the Parenting and Family Support Centre</a>, where making a fresh start at a new school was part of an intervention for some of the children, there were at least as many successful transitions for children moving from private to state schools as for children moving from state to private schools. What was more important was the ability of the child to fit in and make friends at the new school.</p>
<h2>So is a child less likely to be bullied at a private school?</h2>
<p>Although more parents from state schools report their child is bullied than do parents from private schools, this could result from the higher proportion of at-risk students who attend state schools. Therefore we cannot conclude that an individual child will be less likely to be bullied if they attend a private school.</p>
<p>There is bullying at all schools. A number of factors impact a child’s risk of being targeted for bullying. These include school management, the child’s social and emotional skills, support from friends and the parenting they receive. </p>
<p>Children’s friendships at school <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9923467">are an important protective factor</a> against bullying. So whether your child already has good friends or is likely to be able to make good friends at a school is an important factor in choosing a school for your child. </p>
<p>Supportive family relationships <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20132419">help protect children</a> against the emotional consequences of bullying at school, so families should take lifestyle factors such as the financial burden of school fees and long travel times into account when choosing a school.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karyn Healy conducts ongoing work with state schools and occasional work in private schools.
She coordinated the trial of Resilience Triple P, an intervention for the families of children bullied at school, which was funded by the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Recent survey data revealed that twice as many parents of public school students reported their children had been bullied compared to private school parents.Karyn Healy, Program Coordinator (Psychologist), Resilience Triple P program Parenting and Family Support Centre, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/443082015-07-08T20:06:50Z2015-07-08T20:06:50ZGive a Gonski? Funding myths and politicking derail schools debate<p>The past few weeks have seen some wild twists and turns in the politics of Australian school funding. </p>
<p>Debates were re-ignited when Fairfax obtained <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-school-reform-paper-proposes-cutting-federal-funding-20150621-ghtkkz.html">a leaked discussion paper</a> from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that advanced a number of radical ideas for reforming school funding.</p>
<p>The Coalition swiftly distanced itself from the most extreme options in the paper, including <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/leaked-report-shows-school-funding-is-in-a-mess-20150622-ghu8c6">charging high-income parents</a> to send their children to public schools. </p>
<p>In the heat of political fallout from the leaked paper, the Australian Council for Educational Research <a href="http://www.acer.edu.au">(ACER)</a> last week released a <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/aer/14/">rigorous review</a> of school funding in Australia. </p>
<p>The report echoed growing arguments that school funding arrangements in Australia’s federal system are increasingly messy, inequitable and unsustainable.</p>
<p>The report also showed federal increases in school funding have risen more sharply for non-government schools than government schools since the 1970s.</p>
<p>This week advocacy group Save Our Schools <a href="http://www.saveourschools.com.au/media-releases/media-release-funding-for-public-schools-down-funding-for-private-schools-up">released an analysis</a> of funding data from 2009-2013, arguing state/territory funding for schools has fallen for public schools but risen for independent schools.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, each of these reports has been accompanied by heated and often polarised debates in the media, twitter-sphere and among experts. </p>
<h2>Can’t see the wood for the trees?</h2>
<p>It is often hard to get clarity over the state of Australian school funding.</p>
<p>While funding has always been a perplexing area of policy, it has descended into a hazy quagmire since the release of <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/review-funding-schooling-final-report-december-2011-0">the Gonski Report</a> in 2011. </p>
<p>This is ironic, given the Gonski review was designed to clean up school funding in our nation. </p>
<p>School funding is hard to grasp because it is made up of a complex set of policies and formulas that differ across states, territories and sectors (public, Catholic and independent).</p>
<p>The confusion in recent debates, however, owes just as much to misleading political and public debates, which further obscure this already complex policy field.</p>
<p>Indeed, some statements and opinion pieces about Gonski border on fantasy – distorting the facts of the report so heavily that the “net effect” is a grand artifice of debate built upon non-truths and heresy. </p>
<p>Current debates are handicapped by a number of myths, which need to be overcome if the funding debate is going to evolve towards greater clarity. </p>
<h2>Myth 1: public schools versus private schools</h2>
<p>There is a wealth of quality data that reveals important differences between the funding of government, Catholic and independent schools.</p>
<p>These differences need to be taken seriously and rigorously scrutinised to determine whether school funding arrangements are equitable.</p>
<p>The problem is, such data is often misconstrued or simplified down to an argument that pits public and private schools against each other.</p>
<p>A common misconception is that Australia has one “public” sector (funded by taxpayers) and one “private” sector (funded by parents).</p>
<p>Frequently, for example, I am asked the question: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Why should parents pay taxes to send other people’s children to public schools when they already pay to send them to a private school?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This question reflects a widespread misunderstanding about how schools are actually funded.</p>
<p>The truth is, there is no such thing as a purely “private” school in Australia. All schools in Australia receive money from governments.</p>
<p>As the graph below shows, the key difference between sectors is not whether one receives government funding or not.</p>
<p>Instead, the key issue at stake is the amount and proportion of funds that come from either federal or state/territory governments, and from “private” sources such as parental fees.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87688/original/image-20150707-1297-mp89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87688/original/image-20150707-1297-mp89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87688/original/image-20150707-1297-mp89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87688/original/image-20150707-1297-mp89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87688/original/image-20150707-1297-mp89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87688/original/image-20150707-1297-mp89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87688/original/image-20150707-1297-mp89va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All schools, therefore, are publicly supported.</p>
<p>Rather than pitting public and private schools against each other, the debate should instead focus on whether or not “the mix” of funding provided to schools, regardless of state or sector, is fair and maximises opportunities for all young Australians.</p>
<p>This is exactly what the Gonski report sought to do in making recommendations to develop a funding model that is “needs-based” and “sector-blind”. In other words, a model that funds schools based on need, rather than whether schools are government, Catholic or independent. </p>
<h2>Myth 2: Labor is the pro-Gonski party</h2>
<p>We hear a lot these days about how federal Labor committed to funding schools for six years based on a Gonski-inspired model, but the federal Coalition will only fund the first four years. </p>
<p>This is true, but does not tell the whole story.</p>
<p>Often ignored in this “six vs four year” debate is that federal Labor never produced a funding model that faithfully represented the core principles of the Gonski report. </p>
<p>Instead, the principles of the Gonski reform were compromised from the word go, when Labor promised that <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/prime-minister-julia-gillard-says-private-schools-will-get-more/story-fn59nlz9-1226453690310">no school would lose a dollar</a> under the plan. </p>
<p>Instead of a “needs-based” and “sector-blind” model, therefore, Australia was delivered a model that protected the vested interests of Catholic and independent schools. </p>
<p>The Victorian Labor government has also distorted the principles of Gonski, by passing a curious piece of legislation that ensures a minimum of <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/state-labors-big-mistake-on-school-funding-20150315-142q07.html">25% of state government funding</a> for government schools will be allocated to the independent and Catholic sectors. </p>
<p>Labor leader Bill Shorten has also <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/bill-shorten-refuses-to-fund-full-gonski/story-fn59nlz9-1227415234400">refused to commit</a> to the last two years of the Gonski reform if elected.</p>
<p>These crucial facts are often forgotten by pro-Gonski supporters, who paint Labor as the “Gonski party”. The reality is Labor governments have shied away from the bold reforms called for under Gonski.</p>
<p>This is not to suggest the Coalition has a better plan. It doesn’t. <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/leaked-report-shows-school-funding-is-in-a-mess-20150622-ghu8c6">It is not only clear</a> the Coalition has no intention of pursuing Gonski-based reforms, it also appears to be considering a range of other weird and wonderful options.</p>
<h2>Myth 3: ‘How much?’ is the key question</h2>
<p>While school funding is clearly important, it is by no means the “magic bullet solution” to fix Australian schools. </p>
<p>Gonski is not the messiah. </p>
<p>A myth that has circulated since the Gonski report has been that the greatest equity question in Australian schooling is about “how much” cash schools get. </p>
<p>By focusing on “amounts of cash”, debates have obscured the equally important question of “what schools do” with the cash. </p>
<p>We could give a school all the money in the world, but if there is bad leadership, an incoherent curriculum or poor teaching practices, it is simply wasted money. </p>
<p>By focusing on “how much”, the school funding debate promotes a very narrow vision of what “equity” means in schools.</p>
<p>We constantly hear debates about the inequitable distribution of money, but how often do we have a debate about the inequitable distribution of quality teachers or curriculum options?</p>
<p>Any injection of cash into schools, therefore, <a href="http://www.afr.com/opinion/in-wake-of-stalled-gonski-review-is-there-a-way-forward-on-school-funding-20150630-gi18xk">needs to be accompanied</a> by monitoring and accountability measures that ensure money is “well spent”. </p>
<h2>Back to the (Gonski) future…</h2>
<p>The Gonski report was a landmark moment in the history of Australian school funding and an unprecedented opportunity to develop an equitable funding model.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the politics of distraction, fuelled by political leaders afraid to disrupt the status quo, has ensured the principles of Gonski remain unfulfilled.</p>
<p>It is time, therefore, to revisit the future proposed by Gonski and to stem the flow of bad ideas that are driving school funding into a political mess.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Glenn will be on hand for an Author Q&A between 1 and 2m AEST on Thursday, July 9. Post your questions in the comments section below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn C Savage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Political debates around school funding focus on public versus private, which party is the Gonski champion, and who gets the most money. All of these debates miss the point.Glenn C Savage, Researcher and Lecturer in Education Policy, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/408992015-07-01T04:22:54Z2015-07-01T04:22:54ZPopularity of private schools across Africa requires sound policy response<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86763/original/image-20150629-9099-s2gaer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Kenya, the authorities struggle to keep track of low-fee non-government schools. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dai Kurokawa/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Private schools are becoming more common around the world. The portion of primary school students enrolled in non-government schools globally stood at 16% in 2000. It <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/stephenheyneman/files/2011/09/IJED-low-cost-private-schools.pdf">had risen</a> to 20% by 2009. The demand, particularly for low-fee private schools, is rising even in countries whose governments offer <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/education.shtml">free primary education</a> to all children. </p>
<p>The United Nations <a href="http://www.right-to-education.org/news/un-human-rights-experts-make-ground-breaking-statements-privatisation-education-ghana-chile-and">says</a> it is concerned about this growth and the effects of privatising education in developing nations. It singles out Ghana and Uganda. In the case of Ghana it suggests that private education is developing fast:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… without the necessary supervision regarding the conditions of enrolment, the quality of education provided, and the transparency and efficiency in the management of education resources.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Uganda, the UN believes that the rise of private education is “widening … the gap in access to quality education”. This, the organisation’s committee on economic, social and cultural rights says, disproportionately affects girls and children from poorer families.</p>
<p>Despite these concerns, parents will continue to seek out quality education for their children. They have the right to do this, particularly if they feel the government school system is not up to scratch. Private schools are not going anywhere – so it becomes important to devise a sound public policy that is appropriate to manage these institutions. </p>
<h2>Why parents choose private schools</h2>
<p>Our research in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana revealed that there are both push and pull factors at play when it comes to parents choosing a school for their children.</p>
<p>On the push side, governments have <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2013/09/07-kenya-economics-primary-education-kimenyi">tended</a> to expand educational access without making the necessary investment in quality. Across Africa, public schools tend to be <a href="http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-all/advocacy/global-action-week/gaw-2013/facts-and-figures/">overcrowded</a>. This means that teachers are often unresponsive to individual student problems.</p>
<p>Nor is free public education really free. We <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/stephenheyneman/files/2011/09/IJED-low-cost-private-schools.pdf">found</a> that the cost of attending an unregistered non-government school (one which is not officially recognised by local authorities) in Ghana is 12% of the minimum wage. The cost of attending a registered non-government school was 20% the minimum wage. And because of the requirements for uniforms, books and desks, the cost of attending a free public school was 16% of the minimum wage. </p>
<p>Then there are pull factors. Low-fee non-government schools tend to be small and personal. Teachers are employed because they are known to the local community and because they are judged by the school director to be good teachers. Parents find it easier to receive an explanation about how their children are doing at any time. </p>
<p>These schools are also perceived to be safe. Because they are smaller and parents know the director and each teacher personally, there is more control over bad behaviour. Children are not bullied or sexually molested. They are not perceived to symbolise government policies and so, in areas where religious or ethnic killings are common, they are generally left in peace.</p>
<p>In terms of staffing, teachers in these schools are poorly paid but say they are grateful to have a job. Teachers in low fee non-government schools in sub-Saharan Africa, as in North America, are not unionised. They must perform to keep that job: teachers in the low-fee non-government school environment can be dismissed at any time if the record of their children’s performance is below expectations, which pushes them to produce better results. </p>
<h2>Under the radar</h2>
<p>In Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania, it emerged that governments don’t know exactly where low fee non-government schools are located – or, indeed, how many there are. The ministry of education in Western Kenya told us that there were no such schools in the area. We asked a hotel doorman where he sent his children to school and he pointed to a building down the street. Asking about similar local schools yielded a list of ten others.</p>
<p>The point is that low-fee non-government schools often exist under the radar and are not included in the national education statistics. This means that governments do not have accurate data on school enrolment, and health and welfare agencies cannot reach impoverished children deserving of nutrition supplements or public health interventions. </p>
<p>Some argue that both governments and foreign assistance agencies should focus their attention exclusively on improving the public education system. Others argue that private demand represents a key factor in a nation’s development and that government schools help stimulate innovation. </p>
<p>Our own feelings were a compromise. Certainly, work must be done to improve public education systems. But there is no reason why children in low fee non-government schools should remain outside a government’s purview. Steps should be taken to regulate the private schools. These should include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Ensuring that these schools are registered with the education ministry without charge. Modest fees for certain license specialisations may be reasonable, but not for registration.</p></li>
<li><p>Ensure that poor children in the private system receive the same cash or nutrition benefits as their counterparts in the public system</p></li>
<li><p>Reduce the regulations, on class size, tuition, teacher training which inhibit non-government schools and allow them the freedom to experiment with how to deliver lessons in ways which improve on the public system</p></li>
<li><p>Ensure for-profit schools are registered separately from non-profit schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Give non-profit non-government schools tax exemption.</p></li>
<li><p>Governments might require that a minimum percentage of scholarships be available in high-fee non-government schools.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It would be useful, too, for governments and development agencies to expand the level of innovation with respect to non-government schools. Because of their extraordinary potential for mass innovation, governments should expand the opportunities for systems of for-profit primary schools (‘schools in a box’) as they would for tax-free zones and industrial parks deserving of public support on grounds of their high public good potential. </p>
<p>Low-fee non-government schools are a permanent part of achieving education for all. They should be treated as such.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen P Heyneman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Low-fee non-government schools are a permanent part of achieving education for all. They should be treated as such.Stephen P Heyneman, Professor (Emeritus) International Education Policy, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/436242015-06-22T05:46:15Z2015-06-22T05:46:15ZLeaked school funding proposals: should we be worried?<p>The <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-school-reform-paper-proposes-cutting-federal-funding-20150621-ghtkkz.html">leak of four reform proposals</a> for Australian schooling from a confidential draft of the Green Paper on the <a href="https://federation.dpmc.gov.au/">Reform of the Federation</a> has triggered panic and confusion across the country. But while the proposals may seem worrying at first glance, they need to be put in context.</p>
<p>First, these are not policy announcements. They are merely the next step in the long, exhaustive White Paper process, following the launch of the <a href="http://federation.dpmc.gov.au/issues-paper-4">issues paper exploring roles and responsibilities in education</a> late last year. </p>
<p>Discussion and feedback from that paper has been digested by the White Paper Taskforce in the Prime Minister’s department, and now have taken some rudimentary form as a collection of policy reform options in a draft of the Green Paper. </p>
<p>These options are now the subject of confidential and collaborative discussions with Australia’s state and territory governments – discussions intended to critique, elaborate, amend and refine. Following these revisions, the Green Paper will be publicly released for everyone else to view and have their say.</p>
<p>The Green Paper is a <a href="http://federation.dpmc.gov.au/faq-page#n168">consultation document outlining a range of possible solutions</a> to the key problems as assessed by the government. Public submissions are encouraged. </p>
<p>Only after all of this feedback, and yet more research, more consultation with stakeholders and further discussions with the states, will the Commonwealth release the end product – the White Paper – next year. </p>
<p>This document will officially state the government’s preferred policy settings and approach on government roles and responsibilities in education, health, housing and financial relations. Even White Papers, however, are far from implemented policy: they are just preferred policy settings.</p>
<p>Second, the proposals leaked to Fairfax Media are not at all surprising to those that read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-government-to-take-a-back-seat-in-education-35714">background “issue paper” on federalism in education</a>, which repeatedly argued that schooling outcomes would likely be improved if the Commonwealth returned some or all of its responsibilities in school education to the states. It also raised the possibility of alternative funding structures.</p>
<h2>Proposal 1: make states and territories responsible for all schools</h2>
<p>This could improve the targeting and effectiveness of education funding and programs. But it must be accompanied by commensurate funding from the Commonwealth to the states. </p>
<p>Having two levels of government making funding and program decisions independently distorts policymaking, dilutes the effectiveness of programs and distracts schools from their own cohesive and tailored plans for enhanced learning. </p>
<h2>Proposal 2: make states responsible for public schools, and Commonwealth non-government schools</h2>
<p>This could exacerbate the inequities and policy perversions created by two levels of government pulling independent policy levers independently, and provide incentives to reduce expenditure at the expense of the other level.</p>
<h2>Proposal 3: reduce Commonwealth involvement in schools, without significant structural change</h2>
<p>This is the most likely scenario of the four draft reform options, and depending on the detail it could see significant improvement. Productive collaboration between states and Commonwealth could enhance targeting of needs-based funding and by extension equity and excellence throughout all school systems. </p>
<h2>Proposal 4: make the Commonwealth the dominant funder of all schools</h2>
<p>This would be unlikely and unwise. The <a href="http://www.appa.asn.au/content/gonski-report/Review-of-Funding-for-Schooling-Final-Report-Dec-2011.pdf">Gonski Review of School Funding</a>, and the Commonwealth government itself, both repeatedly state that policy experience and expertise in schooling is held by the states, not the Commonwealth. </p>
<p>Connected to this fourth draft proposal was a suggestion that wealthy families pay fees to send their children to public schools and that Commonwealth funding for schools be connected to family ability to contribute. This fee impost could incentivise families to shift to private schools, exacerbating the residualisation in Australia’s school system from the public system to private schools.</p>
<p>Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne quickly distanced himself from this proposal: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"612754950314024960"}"></div></p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"612761844189507585"}"></div></p>
<p>However, public schools around the country already charge a variety of fees and levies. In most states, schools can legally charge for things <a href="http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/publications/20150211-School-costs/20150211-School-costs-presentation.pdf">“not directly related to providing free instruction”</a>.</p>
<p>Excursions, uniforms, music instruction, and school photos usually incur extra costs. On top of that, many schools ask for money for building funds and more. School principals cite inadequate government funding as the reason for these parent payments.</p>
<p>In 2013, Victorian parents of public school students <a href="http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/reports_and_publications/latest_reports/2014-15/20150211-school-costs.aspx">paid</a> A$310 million to schools – an average of A$558 per student. This was an increase of A$70 million, or 29%, since 2009. Schools in wealthier areas charge and collect much more than this. Schools educating disadvantaged families charge far less and have a low collection rate. </p>
<p>The Victorian Auditor General’s Office <a href="http://www.audit.vic.gov.au/reports_and_publications/latest_reports/2014-15/20150211-school-costs.aspx">found</a> “parent payments have become essential to the provision of free instruction in government schools”; “schools are charging parents for items that should be free”; and the Victorian Department of Education:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… has no oversight on what items and how much schools charge parents.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We need to do away with the myth that public education is free and talk about how government and communities can <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/reports/the-shared-work-of-learning/">work together to better support schools and students</a>. Schools have been operating without necessary support for too long. Greater coordination, collaboration and support is urgently required.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43624/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Hinz is a member of Need to Succeed, which advocates for needs-based, sector-neutral school funding, and has spoken at their Victorian symposium.</span></em></p>The leak of four reform proposals for Australian schooling has triggered panic and confusion across the country. But while at first glance the proposals may seem worrying, they need to be put in context.Bronwyn Hinz, Policy Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy (Victoria University) & PhD Candidate, School of Social and Political Sciences & Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/436112015-06-22T02:34:19Z2015-06-22T02:34:19ZWithdrawing federal funding for public schooling would exacerbate two-tiered system<p>Fairfax press has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-school-reform-paper-proposes-cutting-federal-funding-20150621-ghtkkz.html">reported</a> the federal government’s green paper on <a href="https://federation.dpmc.gov.au/">reforming the federation</a> has suggested four possible scenarios for school funding:</p>
<ol>
<li>Give states and territories complete funding responsibility</li>
<li>The federal government to fund independent schools, while states and territories fully fund public schools</li>
<li>Reduce overall federal involvement in schools</li>
<li>The federal government to become the major funder of schools.</li>
</ol>
<p>Given there is nearly a A$30 billion shortfall in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-education-budget-report-card-f-for-fail-41746">school funding</a> from 2018 in this year’s federal budget, it can be assumed that number 4 is the most unlikely scenario. Given the Coalition’s commitment to <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/renewing-federalism">small central government</a>, it is most likely they would support divesting in school funding, pushing back onto the states and territories.</p>
<p>The opposition has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-22/labor-condemns-proposed-fundamental-shift-in-schools-funding/6562562">condemned</a> the proposed changes. The government was quick to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/22/christopher-pyne-rules-out-rich-paying-fees-for-public-schooling">rule out</a> means-testing parents who send their children to public schools. Education minister, Christopher Pyne took to Twitter:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"612755616591810560"}"></div></p>
<p>However, the question remains: if the federal government withdraws from funding public schools, which is looking increasingly likely, how will the states and territories pick up the slack?</p>
<h2>A two-tiered school system?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/value-for-the-education-dollar/story-e6frg71x-1226903790451">user-pays</a> mentality should be no surprise, considering that in the past 18 months the government has attempted (unsuccessfully) to introduce a GP co-payment and privatise the university sector by deregulating fees.</p>
<p>I have argued <a href="https://theconversation.com/pyne-misses-the-point-in-education-reform-26233">previously</a> that the reform agenda misses one of the most important questions: what kind of society do we want to live in? A two-tiered system of schooling will have devastating effects on our social fabric, widening an already too large and persistent <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-poor-kids-continue-to-do-poorly-in-the-education-game-23500">equity gap</a>. </p>
<p>Under a market approach to schooling, poor students will be even <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/students-captive-to-market-forces-and-unfair-school-funding-models-20131208-2yza6.html">worse off</a>. Considering the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jun/21/australian-inequality-rising-as-top-20-increase-wealth-and-income-report">rising inequality</a> in Australia, this will only further exacerbate the situation.</p>
<p>The 2011 <a href="http://www.appa.asn.au/content/gonski-report/Review-of-Funding-for-Schooling-Final-Report-Dec-2011.pdf">Gonski Review</a> of School Funding was a sector-blind, needs-based and equitable funding model, which had at its heart the promise that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>all students have access to a high standard of education regardless of their background or circumstances.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite claiming to be on a <a href="http://www.themonthly.com.au/politicoz/november/1385419988/unity-ticket">unity ticket</a> for school funding in the lead-up to the 2013 election, the Coalition government has gone against many of Gonski’s recommendations, including the bulk of Gonski funding.</p>
<p>The focus on whether parents <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/wealthy-parents-could-be-forced-to-pay-for-public-schooling/story-fnihslxi-1227409005468">might have to pay</a> more to send their children to public schools is a distraction from the real situation, which is that the government is increasingly seeking to <a href="https://theconversation.com/health-and-schools-spending-growth-must-eventually-be-slowed-abbott-23622">divest</a> in public health and education.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/school-funding-co-payment-for-wealthy-a-matter-for-states-pm-says/story-fn59nlz9-1227409186021">statement</a> that school funding is a matter for the states and territories belies the broader federalism “reform” agenda that puts market logic at the heart of education, health, welfare and other social services; turning them from public goods to private commodities.</p>
<h2>Why we should all fight for public education</h2>
<p>A common neoliberal myth supposes that if everyone is working in their own economic, social and political interests, then it will have benefits for others. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2015/jun/21/so-much-for-trickle-down-bold-reforms-are-required-to-tackle-inequality">Trickle-down economics</a> is one example, with another being the argument that having a university degree <a href="http://theconversation.com/university-a-worthwhile-investment-for-individuals-and-society-oecd-31516">benefits</a> the degree-holder more than society.</p>
<p>When it comes to schooling, the argument is made that parents should have the <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-no-great-love-for-the-private-path-but-parents-follow-the-money-40376">choice</a> to send their children to the best school in order to get the best education they can. This has played out in the US with the rise of charter schools, and in the UK with its focus on free schools and academies. Yet, as I have previously <a href="https://theconversation.com/education-is-a-public-good-not-a-private-commodity-31408">described</a>, such moves increase inequity.</p>
<p>The adverse effects of the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/sweden-schools-crisis-political-failure-education">Swedish free schools</a> system, where the creation of for-profit schools being funded by public money has seen both decreasing educational outcomes and increasing inequality, should provide a cautionary tale for Australia.</p>
<p>Since the New South Wales <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/num_act/psao1866n33208.pdf">Public Schools Act 1866</a>, legislation has enshrined compulsory, secular and universal access to public schooling. This is not something that should be taken lightly, nor should it be cast aside with a spurious argument that it is not the responsibility of the federal government.</p>
<p>Providing universal access to high-quality education that is publicly provided is something we are all collectively responsible for.</p>
<p>Public schooling should not be seen as a safety net, providing limited education for those who cannot afford to go to a private school. Instead, it needs to be celebrated as being one of the most important foundations for a healthy democracy.</p>
<p>Access to education provides enormous <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002296/229603E.pdf">benefits</a> to individuals and societies – increasing health, prosperity, social cohesion and political awareness – while also reducing welfare dependency, crime and incarceration rates.</p>
<p>If we are serious about our attempts to close the gap in Indigenous education, raise literacy and numeracy levels, reduce social disadvantage and provide a meaningful education for all students in Australia, regardless of where they live, then we must have a strong public education system. </p>
<p>Any attempt to undermine the fabric of public education is an attempt to undermine the fabric of society. As such, it is something that every single one of us should be very concerned about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43611/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Riddle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fairfax press has reported the federal government’s green paper on reforming the federation has suggested four possible scenarios for school funding: Give states and territories complete funding responsibility…Stewart Riddle, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/425432015-06-01T20:07:59Z2015-06-01T20:07:59ZPrivate, Catholic schools do add value to students’ results<p>Over the last few years <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/thirty-studies-and-15--years-later-review-shows-public-schools-produce-same-results-20150419-1mlrvg.touch.html">several studies have concluded</a> there are no differences in academic outcomes for students from government, independent or Catholic schools once statistical adjustments are made for students’ socioeconomic status and other factors.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PISA-2012-Report.pdf">Studies</a> based the on 2009 and 2012 Australian component of the (<a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">PISA</a>) international student tests found the large differences in student performance between school sectors were reduced when students’ socioeconomic background was taken into account. The differences disappeared when the schools’ average socioeconomic status was taken into account.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092753711500024X">recent study</a> on Year 5 performance in the National Assessments of Performance — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) found the higher scores of students from Catholic and independent schools disappear with a comprehensive set of controls, which includes prior achievement (such as Year 3 NAPLAN performance). Other statistical approaches led to the same conclusion. </p>
<p>The authors attribute much of the differences between school sectors in NAPLAN to “previous cognitive attainments” or natural ability rather than socioeconomic status.</p>
<h2>Previous studies on school sector differences</h2>
<p>Despite these studies, it would be wrong to conclude there are no school sector differences in student performance in Australia. School sector differences are well established for students’ Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks (ATARs). </p>
<p>This conclusion is based on <a href="http://aed.sagepub.com/content/53/1/19.abstract">a number</a> of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13803611003711310?journalCode=nere20">studies</a> of <a href="http://www.lsay.edu.au/publications/2541.html">cohorts</a> participating in the <a href="http://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=lsay_research">Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth</a> study (between 1998 and 2009) and <a href="https://www.training.nsw.gov.au/forms_documents/vet/bvet/research/vet_planning/career_moves_acer.pdf">a study of 2010 school leavers in New South Wales</a>. </p>
<p>Generally, the unadjusted gap (not taking into account other influences on student performance) in tertiary entrance rank between Catholic and government school students is about five ATAR points and the gap between independent and government school students is around 11 ATAR points. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83469/original/image-20150601-15250-1fb5r4y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Catholic schools have higher ATARs than government schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When controlling for students’ socioeconomic status, the Catholic-government school sector gap declines marginally, whereas the independent-government school sector gap declines by about one-third from about 11 to seven ATAR points. </p>
<p>School sector differences decline much more substantially when taking into account students’ prior achievement. On average, when taking into account socioeconomic status and prior achievement, the Catholic-government school sector gap is three to six ATAR points and the independent-government school sector gap six to eight points.</p>
<h2>New study confirms sector differences</h2>
<p>I recently undertook the <a href="http://aed.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/05/29/0004944115586658.abstract">most comprehensive study of school sector differences</a> to date. This study is more robust than previous studies based on survey data, since the data is both 100% accurate and complete. I analysed NAPLAN and tertiary entrance performance data obtained from administrative sources for all students (over 40,000) attending all Victorian schools who obtained an ATAR in 2011.</p>
<p>For ATAR, Catholic school students scored, on average, nine ATAR points higher than government school students. Independent school students scored 17 ATAR points higher. </p>
<p>The increments associated with the Catholic and independent school sectors were reduced to six and eight ranks, controlling for socioeconomic status, prior achievement (Year 9 NAPLAN performance), gender and language background.</p>
<p>Analysis of students’ Tertiary Entrance Aggregate, from which ATAR is derived, revealed substantial effects of school sector. Students from Catholic and independent schools performed at 0.24 and 0.38 standard deviations higher than their peers in the government sector, again once accounting for the effects of socioeconomic status, prior achievement, gender and language background.</p>
<p>The study included analysis of students who changed school sectors between Years 9 and 12. It concluded that the Catholic and independent school sectors were associated with increases in academic performance of six and eight percentiles, respectively, compared with the government sector. </p>
<p>Therefore the higher tertiary entrance performance of students attending Catholic and independent schools cannot be attributed to the differences in the social and academic profiles of each sector’s students.</p>
<h2>Socioeconomic background not as important as thought</h2>
<p>This study also demonstrates that students’ socioeconomic background is not nearly as important as often claimed. Student socioeconomic status is a weak predictor of students’ ATARs. The very much stronger effects of prior achievement (Year 9 NAPLAN performance) on tertiary entrance performance cannot (at all) be attributed to socioeconomic status. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83471/original/image-20150601-27771-12fwltz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A students’ socioeconomic background is a poor predictor of results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The absence of strong effects of socioeconomic background on tertiary entrance performance makes theoretical sense. The knowledge and skills assessed during and before Year 12 are overwhelmingly taught in schools; even the most highly educated, wealthiest, or most cultured parent would have great difficulty with the depth and breadth of a typical Year 12 student’s subjects.</p>
<p>These findings show that Catholic and independent schools “add value” to students’ tertiary entrance performance in Victoria in terms of higher scores. Here “value adding” is defined as increasing student performance beyond that expected by students’ prior achievement. </p>
<p>This conclusion of substantial sector differences in ATAR does not necessarily contradict studies that show small or no sector differences in NAPLAN. It may be the case that school sector differences in student performance are trivial in primary school but increase over the school career and are sizeable in senior secondary school. At least this seems to be the case for Victoria. </p>
<p>Alternatively, Year 12 assessments are “high stakes” tests, whereas NAPLAN and PISA are “low stakes” tests in that there are no consequences for students for excellent or poor performance. Schools are more likely to devote much greater resources to “high stakes” tests. </p>
<p>Since the early 2000s Victoria has been a leader in allowing analysis of administrative data on student performance in Year 12. It is hoped that analysis of similar data of senior secondary students from other states and territories will help us understand the extent and nature of school sector differences in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary N. Marks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research has concluded Catholic and Independent schools do add value to students’ tertiary scores.Gary N. Marks, Adjunct Professor, School of Sociology and Political Science, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/410902015-05-13T20:10:20Z2015-05-13T20:10:20ZLocation matters most to parents when choosing a public school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/80390/original/image-20150505-8415-1tdikyl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nope, not nearly urban enough.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com.au</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/public-versus-private-education">ongoing, heated debate</a> surrounding public versus private secondary schools. Most of these debates concern the quality or merit of private and public schools. </p>
<p>My <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17508487.2014.969288">research</a> about parents campaigning for new public schools found the quality or merit of the school is validated in its location. When it comes to the urban public school, the location of the school is exceedingly important for how desirable the school is for middle-class parents.</p>
<p>The geographical importance is not merely related to convenience and proximity (because many strategic middle-class school choosers will move house for a desirable public school). It is more nuanced and complex than that. A suburb in which a school is located lends itself to prestige, status and class. </p>
<h2>The statistics</h2>
<p>For three years, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01596306.2012.739471">I studied groups of parents lobbying for brand-new public schools</a>. I wanted to know what made certain public schools more desirable than others; what kind of strategies parents used to acquire enrolment in the desirable schools; and why public education was meaningful and what it symbolised for parents.</p>
<p>This <a href="http://arrow.monash.edu.au/vital/access/manager/Repository/monash:151197">research</a> encompassed interviews, observation and comparative analyses of 15 different suburbs and schools, by income, race and religion. </p>
<p>What came from this analysis is: for the participants in this study, desirable public high schools are located in suburbs with higher levels of income, in comparison to the state median and the surrounding suburbs. </p>
<p>The desirable schools are positioned in suburbs with higher levels of Australian-born residents, in comparison to the surrounding suburbs and on par with the state median. </p>
<p>The desirable public schools are also positioned in suburbs with higher levels of individuals who identify with “No Religion” in the Australian Census. In the desirable suburbs, the percentage of these individuals is higher than the state median and higher than the surrounding suburbs on all counts.</p>
<h2>Geography and class</h2>
<p>Beyond these statistics, there is another embedded layer to how geography influences and informs school choice. Each of my participants referenced class in the interviews. I did not ask any questions about class or use the actual word, but each interview participant referenced the “middle class” in relation to their own identity. </p>
<p>This reference was always negotiated, imagined and discussed in connection with where they live. Where you live is a crucial marker of your own “class story”. In turn, this directly influences how an individual engages in school choice, but also which school they want for their child. I make this argument in the context of the urban, public school.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81504/original/image-20150513-5763-djsy60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Class is reinforced by our surroundings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Coghlan/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Geography is physical – it is around us and under our feet. But it also represents and is emblematic of identity and class. Where an individual lives relates strongly to social standing. </p>
<p>Geography constructs class – that is, social divisions, social separations and social hierarchies. A lesser amount of infrastructure within particular suburbs, such as missing footpaths, a rickety footbridge, or a lack of schools, expresses matters of class – a sense of inferiority or superiority - within a physical space.</p>
<h2>The question of convenience</h2>
<p>Middle-class parents frequently rely on an argument of convenience. And of course, why shouldn’t they? We are all busy. </p>
<p>However, in my research, I find that problems of distance are always overcome, provided the school is desirable. If the middle-class school chooser can achieve enrolment in a desirable public school, then travel distances will not matter.</p>
<p>For the savvy chooser, there is a strong and significant perceived <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lesson-from-canada-why-australia-should-have-fewer-selective-schools-35534">gap between “good” and “bad” schools</a>. Differences in government funding to schools contribute to this gap. </p>
<p>Indeed, it is not simply the stratification between “good” and “bad” schools - it reaches beyond that to the urban space in which the school is positioned, and how this space is characterised by school choosers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Rowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The quality of a public school is in location, location, location.Emma Rowe, Lecturer in the Faculty of Education,, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.