tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/school-funding-557/articlesSchool funding – The Conversation2024-03-15T04:55:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256782024-03-15T04:55:19Z2024-03-15T04:55:19ZThere’s an extra $1 billion on the table for NT schools. This could change lives if spent well<p>The federal and Northern Territory governments have just made a “historic” funding <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/anthony-albanese/australian-and-northern-territory-governments-agree-fully-and-fairly-fund-all-nt">announcement</a> of about A$1 billion for schools in the territory. </p>
<p>This includes an extra $737.7 million from the federal government and an extra $350 million from the NT government between 2025 and 2029. This would make the NT only the third Australian jurisdiction (after the ACT and Western Australia) to have “fully funded” public schools. </p>
<p>This means they would get 100% of the “<a href="https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/schooling-resource-standard">Schooling Resource Standard</a>” which was set up through the so-called Gonski reforms more than a decade ago. This determines how much funding schools get based on student needs. </p>
<p>Federal Education Minister Jason Clare <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/anthony-albanese/australian-and-northern-territory-governments-agree-fully-and-fairly-fund-all-nt">described</a> the announcement as a “historic day for public education in the Northern Territory”.</p>
<p>What is the funding for? What do NT schools and students need?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-more-money-is-flagged-for-wa-schools-what-does-fully-funded-really-mean-222400">As more money is flagged for WA schools, what does 'fully funded' really mean?</a>
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<h2>What is the funding for?</h2>
<p>Governments say the funding will provide more resources to improve education outcomes in the NT. Funding will go to the most disadvantaged schools first. It also comes on top of <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/king/new-investment-support-better-safer-future-central-australia">$40.4 million</a> dedicated specifically to Central Australian schools in last year’s federal budget. </p>
<p>We already know NT schools need extra support. </p>
<p>Late last month, the NT government released a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-29/nt-government-to-scrap-middle-schools-after-education-review/103530292#">review of secondary education</a> in the territory, produced with Deloitte Access Economics in partnership with Charles Darwin University. </p>
<p>It <a href="https://education.nt.gov.au/reviews-and-consultations/review-of-secondary-education-in-the-northern-territory">found</a> the territory’s education system had higher needs for specialised support for students and teachers than the rest of Australia. </p>
<p>These include high proportions of cultural and linguistic diversity. The territory has the highest proportion of students identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Australia (39%). There are than 100 Aboriginal and about 87 other languages spoken in the region.</p>
<p>The population is also extremely geographically dispersed with at least 66% in remote or very remote communities.</p>
<p>There are also high levels of socioeconomic and educational disadvantage. For example, a <a href="https://education.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1173064/review-of-effective-enrolment-final-report.PDF">2022 report</a> for the territory’s education department noted average household income in very remote areas of the NT was approximately 45% lower than the rest of Australia. </p>
<p>On top of this, there are significant <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-18/department-of-education-nt-redeploy-former-teachers/103363310">teacher shortages</a>. </p>
<h2>The importance of student attendance</h2>
<p>Funding is going to need to be flexible so schools can implement programs that meet their local needs. </p>
<p>This includes addressing student attendance at school, which remains a significant issue in the NT. In 2022, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-14/nt-school-attendance-funding-effective-enrolment/102215672">the overall attendance rate</a> was 73% for public schools and 48% for very remote public schools. This rate refers to the proportion of time students attend school, compared to the time they are expected to attend.</p>
<p>The current NT government student <a href="https://education.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1058421/northern-territory-education-engagement-strategy-2022-2031.pdf">engagement strategy</a> found we need to address attendance through local programs, developed at the school level with support from education department teams. Ruth was the Chair of the Expert Reference Panel for this project. </p>
<p>The strategy was developed through extensive consultation with Indigenous communities and recognises students’ educational outcomes depends on four key areas: </p>
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<li><p>partnership between families and schools</p></li>
<li><p>having educators with the skills to engage students</p></li>
<li><p>meaningful learning experiences</p></li>
<li><p>supporting students’ wellbeing, inclusion and diversity. </p></li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-accord-theres-a-push-to-increase-indigenous-students-and-voices-in-higher-education-but-we-need-more-detail-and-funding-224739">Universities Accord: there's a push to increase Indigenous students and voices in higher education. But we need more detail and funding</a>
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<h2>But we need more certainty</h2>
<p>It is important to point out governments have so far only signed a “statement of intent”. This means there is no formal commitment yet to this funding. </p>
<p>And we don’t have any certainty beyond 2029. </p>
<p>The statement of intent is part of ongoing negotiations this year for a new <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-national-school-reform-agreement-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-school-funding-202847">National School Reform Agreement</a>. This agreement will outline new policies for education reform from 2025. As part of this, all states and territories are making bilateral arrangements with the federal government over funding for their school systems. </p>
<p>We also need to acknowledge decades of educational underfunding cannot be reversed in four years. The funding levels required to improve <a href="https://education.nt.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1061386/education-NT-strategy-2021-2025.pdf">targets</a> around key elements such as early literacy skills, school attendance, NAPLAN results and Year 12 attainment need to be assessed (and potentially changed) through to and beyond 2029.</p>
<h2>How do we make sure funding works?</h2>
<p>The $1 billion flagged by governments will be fundamental to improving educational outcomes in the territory. Current funding arrangements are likely to continue cycles of disadvantage.</p>
<p>But ultimately, investment in NT students is more than just funding. It is about recognising and catering to the complex and unique nature of the educational environment, with culturally relevant teachers and high quality resources. This also needs to include culturally relevant assessment and reporting about student progress. </p>
<p>This – combined with funding certainty – would signal there is a long-term and genuine commitment to future of the NT and our children.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-national-school-reform-agreement-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-school-funding-202847">What is the National School Reform Agreement and what does it have to do with school funding?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225678/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Through Charles Darwin University, Ruth Wallace works with the Northern Territory government and the federal government on a project basis. Ruth was a chief investigator in the NT Secondary Review and chair of the Expert Advisory Panel of the Effective Engagement Review both of which are mentioned in this article. The work is independent of NT government influence. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Through Charles Darwin University, Tracy Woodroffe works with the Northern Territory government and the federal government on a project basis. The work is independent of government influence.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Knipe 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 federal and NT governments have just made a ‘historic’ funding announcement of about $1 billion for schools in the territory.Ruth Wallace, Director, Northern Institute, Charles Darwin UniversitySally Knipe, Associate Professor Education, Charles Darwin UniversityTracy Woodroffe, 2024 ACSES First Nations Fellow, Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224002024-02-01T01:55:48Z2024-02-01T01:55:48ZAs more money is flagged for WA schools, what does ‘fully funded’ really mean?<p>It’s back-to-school time for students and staff across Australia. But the politics of school funding has also turned up at the front gate.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Federal Education Minister Jason Clare <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/clare/press-conference-east-hamersley-primary-school">told</a> nearly 325,000 Western Australian students and their families that by 2026, theirs will be “the first state in Australia to fully fund public schools” (the Australian Capital Territory already has full funding). The federal government has pledged an additional A$774 million, which is to be matched by the WA government.</p>
<p>It’s a significant announcement, given the next national funding agreement (due by the end of 2024) is still to be thrashed out between the Commonwealth, states, territories and non-government school sectors.</p>
<p>The government has also only just released a <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/review-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system/announcements/now-published-review-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system">major review</a> looking at what the next phase of school reforms should involve. </p>
<p>What does the WA news mean for schools, and what does full funding really involve? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-report-wants-more-funding-and-better-support-for-australian-schools-but-we-need-a-proper-plan-for-how-to-get-there-219491">A new report wants more funding and better support for Australian schools. But we need a proper plan for how to get there</a>
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<h2>What do we mean by “fully funded”?</h2>
<p>“Fully funded” is often talked about when it comes to education debates. To the casual observer, the aspiration is a peculiar one. At one level, public schools across all states and territories are already funded almost entirely by governments. </p>
<p>State and territory governments provide most of the recurring annual funding for their school systems. The federal government provides about 20% of the total funding via agreements made every five years. As the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2023">Productivity Commission</a> notes, 2.6 million students in Australian public schools cost federal and state taxpayers A$54.9 billion, or just shy of $21,000 per student per year.</p>
<p>But as significant as this amount might seem to the wider public, this isn’t enough to provide all students in public schools with what has been agreed is a reasonable standard of funding. </p>
<p>More than a decade ago, a <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/school-funding/resources/review-funding-schooling-final-report-december-2011">school funding review</a> led by David Gonski recommended Australia introduce a “<a href="https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/schooling-resource-standard">schooling resource standard</a>”. This would be a mechanism to ensure fair and equitable distribution of government funding. This means funding should be based on need – schools with greater levels of student need receive greater funds.</p>
<p>On top of a base rate, there are extra loadings for schools with students with disability, students of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background, students with socio-educational disadvantage, students with low English proficiency, small schools and schools in regional and remote locations.</p>
<p>This system seems uncontroversial, particularly when those who benefit most are those most in need. </p>
<p>But despite broad agreement about the idea, there has been (and still is) a long wait to see it put into practice. The timeline to “fully fund” all Australian public schools is still <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook46p/SchoolFunding">set for 2029</a>. </p>
<p>To date, only public schools in the ACT have had full funding allocations under this model. No other state or territory funds their public schools to the full level required.</p>
<h2>Is there a catch?</h2>
<p>More money for education should be applauded, especially when there is broad acknowledgement <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/review-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system/announcements/now-published-review-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system">public schools across Australia are inadequately funded</a>. </p>
<p>What looms large over this announcement, though, is the question of what outcomes could be expected from investing the money and how they will be achieved.</p>
<p>It’s only 12 months since the Productivity Commission delivered a <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/school-agreement/report">damning assessment of Australian education</a>. The report noted a lack of transparency over funding agreements, as well as poor educational outcomes for the money. It also repudiated onerous “low value” administrative burdens on school leaders and teachers.</p>
<p>If steps are not taken to address these criticisms, the money risks being accompanied by additional bureaucratic burden.</p>
<p>It’s also worth highlighting how some of the most serious issues facing schools – <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/public-school-teacher-shortages">teacher shortages</a>, student <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Education_and_Employment/DASC/Interim_Report">behaviour problems</a> and teacher <a href="https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A95358">mental health and personal safety</a> concerns – are unlikely to be resolved simply by providing more money.</p>
<p>The increased funding is necessary and welcome. But it’s not enough on its own. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-national-school-reform-agreement-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-school-funding-202847">What is the National School Reform Agreement and what does it have to do with school funding?</a>
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<h2>Where to now?</h2>
<p>It’s hard to ignore the timing of this announcement at the beginning of a year when the next <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/national-school-reform-agreement">National School Reform Agreement</a> will be determined. </p>
<p>This is a joint agreement between the Commonwealth, states and territories. It sets out national policy initiatives all governments agree to implement over a five-year period. </p>
<p>Later this year, we can expect each jurisdiction to sign individual agreements with the federal government. This will include what they will do to improve student outcomes (in line with the reform agreement), as well as the funding states and territories will contribute as a condition of receiving federal funding.</p>
<p>At the outset of this process, the WA announcement indicates some players at least are considering bold reform. </p>
<p>But the scale of the political challenge is already evident. Only hours after the announcement, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/31/queensland-and-victoria-rebuff-albanese-governments-offer-of-more-public-school-funding">education ministers across the nation</a> were refusing to signal their hearty agreement. Instead, they called on the federal government to increase its contribution from 20% of the school resourcing standard up to 25%.</p>
<p>It is also important to note that WA has only signed a “statement of intent” so far. This is not a final deal. As Clare’s <a href="https://jasonclare.com.au/media/portfolio-media-releases/joint-media-release-australian-and-wa-governments-agree-to-fully-and-fairly-fund-all-western-australian-public-schools/">media release</a> noted, this “provides a basis for the negotiation of the next National School Reform Agreement and associated bilateral agreement”.</p>
<p>There is a lot more work to go in this very important year for Australian schools. But this first announcement is is a positive step. Further, concrete agreements can hopefully be reached and bring forward the day when all schools receive what they need.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Kidson 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>This is a big year for Australian education. State and federal governments are working out a major agreement on schools reform and the question of funding looms large.Paul Kidson, Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2194912023-12-11T11:23:24Z2023-12-11T11:23:24ZA new report wants more funding and better support for Australian schools. But we need a proper plan for how to get there<p>Federal Education Minister Jason Clare released a <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/review-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system/resources/expert-panels-report">major report</a> on schools on Monday. </p>
<p>This will inform the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/review-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system">next round of federal funding for schools</a>, as part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-national-school-reform-agreement-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-school-funding-202847">National School Reform Agreement</a>. This is due to start in January 2025.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/11/national-school-reform-agreement-panel-public-funding-spending">report</a> was commissioned off the back of a <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/school-agreement/report">scathing review</a> by the Productivity Commission in January this year. This found initiatives in the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/quality-schools-package/national-school-reform-agreement">current agreement</a> “have done little, so far, to improve student outcomes”. </p>
<h2>Who wrote the report?</h2>
<p>In response to the Productivity Commission’s findings, Clare extended the current agreement by 12 months until December 2024 to allow an <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/review-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system/review-panel">expert panel</a> to conduct this review. </p>
<p>In March, it was tasked with advising education ministers on “the key targets and specific reforms that should be tied to funding in the next National School Reform Agreement”.</p>
<p>The panel was led by the chair of the Australian Education Research Organisation and former head of the Smith Family, Lisa O'Brien. Along with a survey of students, parents and teachers (with almost 25,000 responses), the panel held 130 meetings with stakeholders and made 92 school visits. </p>
<h2>What is the National School Reform Agreement?</h2>
<p>The National School Reform Agreement is a joint agreement between the Commonwealth, states and territories designed to improve outcomes in Australian schools. It sets out national reform directions and targets that governments agree to pursue over a set period of time. </p>
<p>The current agreement was five years, extended to six. </p>
<p>While the agreement is not widely known beyond education policy circles, it is crucial for shaping the future of education in Australia.</p>
<p>It is also intimately linked with school funding. The reforms outlined in the agreement inform the conditions of federal funding for state and territory systems.</p>
<p>So, while the agreement does not directly determine the model used to determine federal funding for schools, known as the <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/recurrent-funding-schools/schooling-resource-standard">Schooling Resource Standard</a>, it shapes what states and territories do with money by linking funding to the targets. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-national-school-reform-agreement-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-school-funding-202847">What is the National School Reform Agreement and what does it have to do with school funding?</a>
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<h2>What does the report say?</h2>
<p>The report identifies seven “reform directions” it wants governments to consider in the next agreement. </p>
<p>These are designed to lift student outcomes, improve equity and student wellbeing and attract and retain teachers. They are also geared at enhancing funding transparency, reducing education data gaps and supporting innovation. </p>
<p>There are also 24 recommendations across the reform directions. For example, universal screening for literacy and numeracy in Year 1 and more specific help for students to transition to life after school. </p>
<h2>Three big issues</h2>
<p>The report outlines three big issues that pose barriers to reform efforts.</p>
<p>First, state and territory governments ultimately retain the power in how money is spent in their schools. This means it can be difficult to maintain a cohesive approach to implementing national reforms across the federation.</p>
<p>Second, there are increasing numbers of students with disabilities and complex needs. This means a “higher workload and mental load” for teachers and can make it harder for schools to teach effectively. </p>
<p>Third, nearly all public schools are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/17/gonski-review-government-funding-private-public-schools">not fully funded</a> in line with the recommended Gonski funding model (the Schooling Resource Standard). </p>
<h2>What does the report get right?</h2>
<p>There is little doubt the seven reform directions speak to crucial issues in Australian schools. The report also makes strong statements about the need to ensure all schools are fully and consistently funded. For example, it notes it is: </p>
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<p>critical all schools have access to 100 per cent of Schooling Resource Standard funding as soon as possible.</p>
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<p>It’s welcome to see the report endorse collaboration and co-design with First Nations stakeholders, to develop policies to make schools more culturally aware and responsive.</p>
<p>There is also great potential in a recommendation that governments implement “full-service school models” that better connect schools with health, family and disability services. As the panel notes: </p>
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<p>such models must be more widely implemented to better meet the needs of students experiencing disadvantage.</p>
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<h2>What are the report’s limitations?</h2>
<p>A major problem with the report is many of its ideas and recommendations are not translated into tangible targets.</p>
<p>The targets that do feature tend to focus on what can be easily measured. This means we will be tracking the symptoms rather than tackling the root causes of educational challenges.</p>
<p>For example, the report repeatedly draws attention to alarming and widening learning gaps in literacy and numeracy between young people from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds. But there is no recommended target to address these gaps. </p>
<p>Instead, the report offers weaker targets to increase the proportion of disadvantaged students who meet minimum proficiency standards for reading and numeracy in NAPLAN. This will do very little to close achievement gaps.</p>
<p>Another target – “equity” – is primarily about creating a way of measuring the differences in outcomes between cohorts by 2029, not outlining measures to address the gap itself.</p>
<p>Targets are the primary mechanism for shaping government efforts, as the targets are what funding is linked to. So a major risk is the strongest ideas of the report will fade into obscurity. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/are-australian-students-really-falling-behind-it-depends-which-test-you-look-at-218709">Are Australian students really falling behind? It depends which test you look at</a>
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<h2>Now it’s time to talk about funding</h2>
<p>Moving forward, the challenge for federal and state education ministers will be to translate the directions outlined in this report into specific targets and reform initiatives for the upcoming new agreement.</p>
<p>Responding to the report on Monday afternoon, education ministers released a statement suggesting three main themes will inform the next agreement: </p>
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<li><p>equity and excellence</p></li>
<li><p>wellbeing for learning and engagement </p></li>
<li><p>a strong and sustainable workforce. </p></li>
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<p>While these themes overlap somewhat with the report, ministers were clear to describe the independent report as only “one of a number of inputs to the next agreement”.</p>
<p>The panel was forbidden by its terms of reference from examining the Schooling Resource Standard. For the most part the report is silent on the funding implications of its recommended targets.</p>
<p>In this next round of deliberations it will be impossible to avoid the funding debate. There is no doubt the “funding wars” will be reignited.</p>
<p>A central issue will be whether states and territories have the resourcing capacities to implement the reforms, especially considering how far some jurisdictions are from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jul/17/gonski-review-government-funding-private-public-schools">being fully funded</a> under the so-called Gonski model.</p>
<p>If schooling systems are not fairly placed to achieve targets, then the setting of targets becomes a fool’s game. It’s akin to making elaborate plans for a family reunion in Disneyland, but refusing to discuss how everyone will get there.</p>
<p>Ultimately, how much funding schools get and how they use it are equally important and both will need to be central to the debates that follow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219491/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.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacob Broom receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Education Minister Jason Clare released a major report on schools on Monday. This will inform the next round of federal funding as part of the National School Reform Agreement.Glenn C Savage, Associate Professor of Education Policy and the Future of Schooling, The University of MelbourneJacob Broom, Research fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2143102023-11-13T19:19:42Z2023-11-13T19:19:42ZSchool portables aren’t a solution to student overcrowding, but a symptom of it<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/school-portables-arent-a-solution-to-student-overcrowding-but-a-symptom-of-it" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Portable classrooms, also known as mobile classrooms, are stand-alone modular structures used when schools cannot accommodate growing student populations.
They can provide relief in overcrowded schools while permanent accommodations are built, but there are concerns about their use. </p>
<p>Parents in Moncton, N.B., recently signed an open letter about <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10036638/parents-sign-open-letter-action-overcrowded-moncton-school/">how long an overcrowded</a> school is expected to make due with apparently temporary portables, citing cold temperatures and students needing to change buildings to use the washroom. In B.C., The Surrey Teachers Association has complained <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10066976/surrey-portables-no-heat/">about portables lacking heating</a>.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.5909">research has investigated</a> how long schools in the largest school boards in Ontario keep portables on site, as well as the average number of portables per school. My findings indicate that in many cases, portable classrooms are far from being temporary accommodations, and instead, are used as permanent instructional structures.</p>
<h2>Low cost</h2>
<p>Many school districts in Canada and the United States rely on portables as prefabricated facilities when the need for classroom space increases and the budget for school construction is limited. </p>
<p>Portables are preferred for their <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/industry-news/property-report/article-is-it-time-to-reimagine-the-school-portable/#%22%22">fast deployment and low upfront cost</a>. </p>
<p>But studies on <a href="https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/california-portable-classrooms-study">environmental conditions</a> of portable classrooms have reported concerns with <a href="https://www.epa.gov/iaq-schools/maintain-portable-classrooms-part-indoor-air-quality-design-tools-schools">indoor air quality, temperature control, noise levels, water leaks and mould</a>. </p>
<p>Having high numbers of portables at a school has also been associated with <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42955986">congestion in common learning spaces</a>, <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/london-research-links-higher-portable-count-lower-test-scores-at-schools">declines in academic achievement</a>, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/311103104#%22%22">absenteeism</a>.</p>
<p>Portables are <a href="https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/321490/portables-fill-playground-from-the-roof-of-st-roch-separat">not new</a> and have been <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED539480">part of kindergarten to Grade 12 education</a> since the <a href="https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/308333/makeshift-high-school-consisting-of-15-portable-classrooms">mid-20th</a> century. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A portable classroom seen against a grey sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556929/original/file-20231031-21-egoy20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556929/original/file-20231031-21-egoy20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556929/original/file-20231031-21-egoy20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556929/original/file-20231031-21-egoy20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556929/original/file-20231031-21-egoy20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556929/original/file-20231031-21-egoy20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556929/original/file-20231031-21-egoy20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">School boards turn to portables because of their low upfront cost.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portables_at_peirre_trudeau.JPG">(Wikimedia Commons)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Examining 10 years of portables</h2>
<p>I collected 10 years of portable use records (2010-2020) from approximately 2,700 schools in the 27 largest school boards in Ontario. This sample represents about 55 per cent of the schools in the province, serving nearly 63 per cent of the student population. </p>
<p>On average, school boards in the sample used nearly 5,300 portables per year between 2010 and 2020. Two-thirds of the schools in the sample had at least one portable classroom during the 10-year period, with an average of three portables per school. Half of the schools had between one and four portables. In contrast, 35 per cent did not use portables in this period.</p>
<p>While there are no specific criteria to determine what “temporary” means in relation to portable classroom use, it can be argued that portables are needed until a permanent facility is built, or until overcrowding is resolved. </p>
<p>In Ontario, it typically takes between <a href="https://www.hdsb.ca/schools/Pages/HDSB-Builds.aspx#">two and four years</a> to <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/building-ontario-education">build a new school</a>. Therefore, using a portable classroom for more than four years surpasses the expected time frame for temporary accommodation. </p>
<h2>Lack of planning for student growth</h2>
<p>My analysis revealed that 20 per cent of the sampled schools used portables for one to four years and 45 per cent had portables for five to 10 years. </p>
<p>In addition to revealing that portables tend to become permanent, the study showed the average number of portables remained stable over the 10-year period. This suggests school boards in Ontario, and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-portables-schools-feature-1.6967543">likely in other provinces</a>, have become dependent on temporary facilities to address overcrowding. </p>
<p>Several interrelated factors could help explain this situation. First, there is the issue of lack of planning. <a href="https://collections.ola.org/mon/23003/290842.pdf">In 2009, a working group with the Ministry of Education projected</a> that school boards in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) would see enrolment growth. <a href="https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/5909">This study</a> confirmed that urban areas in Ontario, including the GTA, experienced a 10 per cent average enrolment increase, yet despite the rise in enrolment, the average number of portables remained stable. </p>
<h2>Tensions with urban planning</h2>
<p>Second, there is the effect of urban sprawl on school planning. As <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/98-200-x/2021001/98-200-x2021001-eng.cfm">more families move to suburban neighbourhoods</a>, local schools need to rely on portables to alleviate overcrowding. </p>
<p>Inner-city schools, <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/58375">which often serve minoritized students</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-school-closures-doug-ford-pc-government-1.6758142">experience enrolment decline, which puts them at risk of closure</a>. </p>
<p>Third, there is a tension between urban planning and school planning. Undergoing processes of urban change, like <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/98-200-x/2021001/98-200-x2021001-eng.cfm">urban sprawl</a> and <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/82-003-x/2021005/article/00002-eng.htm">gentrification</a>, forces school boards to stretch out resources that otherwise could be concentrated in fewer areas.</p>
<p>School boards are forced to play catch up to city development, making planning a more difficult and less predictable task. The absence of formal mechanisms for school boards to have a say on urban growth makes school planning an afterthought to municipal planning.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the issue of funding. <a href="https://monitormag.ca/articles/inflation-adjusted-school-funding-is-down-1-200-per-student-since-the-ford-government-came-to-power/">Funding cuts</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-education-spending-gap-1.6047233">austerity in Ontario public education</a> are not new. For instance, in 2019, the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/repair-backlog-in-ontario-schools-hits-16-3-billion/article_29d2809a-470a-503e-aa79-9688795b11c2.html">province reported a $16.3 billion</a> backlog in <a href="https://fixourschools.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Hugh_MacKenzie_Report_Ontarios_deteriorating_schools.pdf">school repairs</a>. </p>
<h2>More proactive approach needed</h2>
<p>Since only the most <a href="https://efis.fma.csc.gov.on.ca/faab/Memos/B2022/B01_EN.pdf">urgent cases of overcrowding are selected for funding,</a> school boards can <a href="https://www.sudbury.com/local-news/busting-at-the-seams-16m-for-portables-at-holy-trinity-school-7727588#">wait for several years</a> until requests for new schools are approved. </p>
<p>The process to fund new schools is so slow and reactive, that it is common for <a href="https://windsor.ctvnews.ca/new-public-school-in-tecumseh-satisfies-need-while-preparing-for-future-growth-1.6328320#%22%22">new schools</a> to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/arthur-currie-school-portables-1.6040904">receive portables shortly after opening</a>.</p>
<p>Normalizing temporary structures as permanent educational facilities undermines the goal of providing quality public education to all children. </p>
<p>Portables are not a solution, but a symptom of overcrowding. A more proactive approach to school planning is required.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Augusto Riveros has received funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>Normalizing temporary structures as permanent educational facilities undermines the goal of providing quality public education to all children.Augusto Riveros, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2128122023-09-06T12:07:35Z2023-09-06T12:07:35ZRaac in UK schools: how poor funding and missing data led to closures<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546459/original/file-20230905-24-zbhy7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=96%2C56%2C5255%2C3506&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-student-raising-hand-ask-question-769521358">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In September 2022, schools in England were at <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-in-england-are-facing-bankruptcy-heres-what-the-government-could-do-to-help-193142">risk of bankruptcy</a> as their day-to-day spending threatened to overtake their regular income. A hasty autumn budget included <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-autumn-statement-means-for-financially-struggling-schools-195029">additional revenue funds</a> for schools, coming as a relief to many school leaders.</p>
<p>Twelve months later the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/sep/03/jeremy-hunt-under-fire-after-treasury-says-no-new-cash-to-fix-raac-in-schools">is under pressure</a> to dig deep into his coffers again. This time, schools are hoping for capital funds – money to rebuild school buildings where they present a danger to children.</p>
<p>Usually, discussions of school funding focus on revenue funding, which is related to pupil numbers and pays for salaries and other running costs. Capital funding, for expensive one-off projects, rarely hits the news. But the issue of dangerous reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) made headlines when the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-guidance-for-schools-impacted-by-raac">government announced</a>, in the last week of the school holidays, that some schools would have to close partially or wholly until they could be made safe. </p>
<p>Multimillion-pound new build projects are driven by national policy, not local decisions. Significant maintenance work is too costly for the majority of school budgets, so responsibility rests with the government.</p>
<p>Leaving aside timing and the impact on children’s education, there is an important question that must be answered, to hold successive governments to account and to stop such a situation arising again: how did schools come to be in such a poor state of repair?</p>
<h2>Schools in disrepair</h2>
<p>The school estate in England includes all 21,600 state-funded schools (whether they are maintained by an academy trust or a local authority), educating 8.3 million pupils. Many schools were built in the mid-20th century, and a <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/condition-of-school-buildings-summary.pdf">National Audit Office (NAO) report</a> suggests that more than a third of school buildings are now past their initial design life – and becoming increasingly expensive to maintain properly. </p>
<p>The fact that schools are in disrepair is not news – it has been the case for many years. But it has not been addressed for two fundamental reasons: lack of data and lack of funding.</p>
<p>The government does not have enough information about the actual state of school buildings across the country. The <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/180876/DFE-00073-2011.pdf">2011 James review</a> noted that the quality of maintenance across the school estate varied, but that “no good quality data is collected” on the condition of schools. </p>
<p>Eleven years later, the NAO notes that the government still does not have the information required to manage potential risks. These risks include not just Raac, but also other <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-danger-of-asbestos-in-uk-schools-i-dont-think-they-realise-how-much-risk-it-poses-to-students-203582">hazards such as asbestos</a>.</p>
<p>The Department for Education (DfE) carried out a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf">condition survey of schools</a> in 2021. But its findings do little to convey the detailed knowledge that would be needed to plan a strategic, school-by-school refurbishment and rebuilding programme. Instead, schools have had to bid for money ad hoc if they felt they had a particular need.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students in uniforms and backpacks walking up and down a stairwell in a school" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546467/original/file-20230905-29-6jxdox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546467/original/file-20230905-29-6jxdox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546467/original/file-20230905-29-6jxdox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546467/original/file-20230905-29-6jxdox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546467/original/file-20230905-29-6jxdox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546467/original/file-20230905-29-6jxdox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546467/original/file-20230905-29-6jxdox.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The government does not have enough data to come up with a comprehensive plan to repair schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-teenage-students-uniform-walking-between-779645437">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Regarding Raac in particular, schools minister <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-04-14/180589">Nick Gibb stated</a> that the DfE “only holds partial data”. His department is asking schools to complete a questionnaire to identify the greatest needs. Teaching <a href="https://www.ascl.org.uk/ASCL/media/ASCL/News/Press%20releases/Joint-union-letter-to-Sec-of-State-RAAC-in-schools-04-Sept-2023.pdf">unions have expressed concern</a> about school leaders having to make assessments without the relevant expertise, and note that 1,500 schools have yet to complete the survey.</p>
<p>Although the government says it has known about Raac in public buildings <a href="https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2023/09/04/new-guidance-on-raac-in-education-settings/">since 1994</a>, it did not begin to monitor it in schools until 2018. In 2022 it issued <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1182192/GUIDE-DFE-XX-XX-T-X-9002-Reinforced_Autoclaved_Aerated_Concrete_Identification_Guidance-A-C02.pdf">technical guidance</a> to schools, asking them to report possible Raac in their buildings. The government says that recent cases of crumbling concrete led to a “loss of confidence”, resulting in hurried orders to vacate affected buildings.</p>
<h2>Lack of funding</h2>
<p>This poor knowledge about school conditions was the undoing of Labour’s ambitious Building Schools for the Future programme, which was launched in 2004 with the aim of rebuilding every secondary school in England over 20 years. This was complemented by a programme for primary schools, and by 2009-10 capital spending was at an <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/articles/decline-spending-school-buildings">all-time high of £10 billion</a> (in today’s prices).</p>
<p>The incoming coalition government, however, felt that money was not being targeted appropriately, and that much was being lost in bureaucracy. In 2010, Michael Gove, then secretary of state for education, scrapped the scheme, saying that it was not prioritising the schools in the <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110719/debtext/110719-0001.htm#11071988000003">worst condition</a>. He later described this decision as <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/gove-i-regret-scrapping-building-schools-for-the-future">one of his worst mistakes</a>, though remained of the view that it was right to save public money.</p>
<p>Thirteen of the schools with Raac were <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66723054">approved for rebuilding</a> under Building Schools for the Future, but had their funding withdrawn when the scheme was scrapped.</p>
<p>The coalition government announced the Priority School Building Programme in 2011 to address the most urgent repair and rebuild needs, but it has seen funding fall to well below the amount needed for the job. The 2020 Schools Rebuilding Programme aims to build 50 new schools a year. But even government ministers cannot agree on how many are <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/schools-concerete-raac-sunak-keegan-b2405097.html">actually needed</a>.</p>
<p>It has been apparent for years that there has not been enough money to keep schools properly maintained. A <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7375/CBP-7375.pdf">House of Commons report</a> stated that from 2010 to 2022, school capital spending decreased by 50% in real terms, reaching its lowest level in 2021-22. Although spending for 2022-23 is 29% higher than the previous year, that still leaves it at two-thirds of the 2009-10 value.</p>
<p>Clearly there are conversations to be had within Whitehall, where the Department for Education <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1125417/DfE_consolidated_annual_report_and_accounts_2021_to_2022_accessible.pdf">uses the words “crisis” and “critical”</a> in relation to the risk of school building collapse. Yet the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-fund-school-repair-treasury-budget-b2404280.html">Treasury says</a> there will be no new money available. A chronic shortfall of both capital funding and system knowledge cannot be allowed to put the education – and lives – of children at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Rolph 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>It’s not news that Raac is a problem in UK, but funding to fix them is in short supply.Chris Rolph, Director, Nottingham Institute of Education, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047782023-05-15T12:34:19Z2023-05-15T12:34:19ZShort meetings could encourage teachers to stay on the job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525733/original/file-20230511-42642-h5nbrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C50%2C6689%2C4396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teacher turnover annually costs school districts thousands of dollars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/school-counselor-talks-withe-group-of-students-royalty-free-image/950887440?phrase=teacher+principal&adppopup=true">SDI Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>A single, 10-minute meeting between teachers and their principals can increase teacher job satisfaction, our new research shows. This increase in job satisfaction could potentially encourage teachers to stay in the profession longer, thereby reducing turnover and potentially saving school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars. </p>
<p>Our pilot study <a href="https://journals.sfu.ca/cvj/index.php/cvj/article/view/113/235">findings were published</a> in the Journal of Leadership, Equity, and Research.</p>
<p>By combining surveys and digital conferencing to gauge how teachers felt before and after they met with their principals, we implemented a novel research design that, to the best of our knowledge, has never been attempted previously. The three teachers who had the meetings were compared to four teachers who did not meet with their principals.</p>
<p>Although there are many factors, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-it-time-for-teachers-to-get-a-raise-199687">relatively low salaries</a> and lack of support from colleagues, that <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/node/2448">contribute to teacher turnover</a>, teachers also frequently mention <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373716659929">inadequate support from school principals</a> as a major reason for leaving the profession. Due to increasing demands on school administrators’ time, a commitment of only 10 minutes could have a lot of appeal if later on, that 10 minutes can save countless hours that would otherwise be spent on attracting and hiring new teachers to replace the ones that leave.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Half of U.S. teachers <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED556348">leave the profession within their first five years on the job</a>. These early departures occur most often in <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/teacher-turnover-report">schools located in poorer, rural and inner-city areas</a>. </p>
<p>Very often these schools have <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-105180.pdf">higher percentages of students who require remedial or specialized learning environments</a>. In terms of subject matter, <a href="https://epaa.asu.edu/index.php/epaa/article/view/3696/2228">many schools are struggling</a> to find qualified math and science teachers, as well as teachers who are certified to teach English language learners.</p>
<p>Studies have also shown that many schools with lower student achievement <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Teaching_Experience_Report_June_2016.pdf">have disproportionately high numbers of inexperienced teachers</a>.</p>
<p>While our study involved 10-minute meetings, we recognize that school principals need to do more than just hold these meetings to ensure they are supporting their teachers effectively. Recent research has shown that COVID-19 <a href="https://cceam.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ISEA-2021-49-No-1.pdf#page=115">led to lower job satisfaction among teachers</a>, placing greater demands on school principals to support their teachers.</p>
<p>Depending on the location, the <a href="https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/NCTAFCostofTeacherTurnoverpolicybrief.pdf">cost of replacing each teacher</a> is between US$10,000 and $20,000. Taken nationally, these costs amount to $7.3 billion annually that could be spent on facilities, programs, meals and supplies to directly assist students.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>We are making plans to expand this intervention research to include a much larger population of teachers – 500 from one state, to be exact – and administrators.</p>
<p>We also plan to investigate the role that social media plays in how the general public, and specifically aspiring teachers, view the teaching profession. Thirty years ago, burned-out teachers were limited in expressing their workplace challenges to friends, family and others in their local communities. With the advent of social media, however, they are able to broadcast these struggles to anyone with internet access, across the country and around the world. </p>
<p>Determining the factors that contribute to the number of teachers who enter the profession is also just as important as keeping teachers in their classrooms longer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Martinez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Could a 10-minute meeting between teachers and principals reduce teacher turnover? A researcher explores the possibilities.James Martinez, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2038402023-04-18T20:01:41Z2023-04-18T20:01:41ZA new report proposes full public funding for private schools, but there’s a catch<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521484/original/file-20230418-24-ivxgck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C16%2C5395%2C3594&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are multiple signs the Australian education system is in crisis. This includes <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/australian-school-education-is-falling-short/">declining academic outcomes</a>, <a href="https://www.theeducatoronline.com/k12/news/opinion-no-quick-fix-for-teacher-shortages-we-need-a-longterm-strategy/281939">teacher shortages</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-principals-are-reaching-crisis-point-pushed-to-the-edge-by-mounting-workloads-teacher-shortages-and-abuse-201777">principals facing abuse</a>, and an upswing in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-20/three-in-four-act-school-principals-subject-to-violence-survey/102119620">school violence</a>. </p>
<p>Hanging over these is the Productivity Commission’s <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/school-agreement/report">January 2023 assessment</a> that what we’ve done with Australian education over the past decade has done “little, so far, to improve student outcomes”. </p>
<p>Education authors Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor agree. In an ambitious new report for education initiative <a href="https://all-learning.org.au/about-all/">Australian Learning Lecture</a>, they offer a way forward. </p>
<p>They <a href="https://all-learning.org.au/?page_id=2613&preview=true">propose a framework</a> for Australian schools to increase parental choice (including for religious-based schools) and improve the inequity that afflicts the system.</p>
<h2>What’s the problem?</h2>
<p>Greenwell and Bonnor say too many disadvantaged students are being concentrated into communities of disadvantage. This results in </p>
<blockquote>
<p>unacceptable gaps in learning [that] separate disadvantaged students from their more privileged peers. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Since the introduction of government funding to non-government schools in the 1960s, we have seen an increased concentration of advantaged students in some schools, and the same for disadvantaged students. The <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/Equity-in-Education-country-note-Australia.pdf">OECD has been warning Australia</a> about this for some time. But current policy settings offer little incentive for change.</p>
<p>As Greenwell and Bonnor argue, achieving our national educational goals is unlikely when:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we are stacking the odds against the children who have the least luck in terms of the circumstances they are born into.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-productivity-commission-says-australian-schools-fall-short-on-quality-and-equity-what-happens-now-190646">The Productivity Commission says Australian schools 'fall short' on quality and equity. What happens now?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There is also a conflict here with the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">United Nations Declaration of Human Rights</a>, which affirms that education at least at primary level should be free and compulsory. Crucially, parents have “a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children”.</p>
<p>Australian non-government schools do provide opportunity for parents to exercise this right, but even the lowest level of fees charged by some Catholic system schools can still be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/parents-face-sos-plea-as-battlers-left-behind-20040811-gdjj0e.html">beyond the reach</a> of some parents. </p>
<p>As the authors note, this is not a problem for non-government schooling alone. Segregation within government schools exacerbates the situation. <a href="https://theconversation.com/nsw-is-trying-to-make-the-selective-school-application-process-fairer-but-is-it-doing-enough-187283">Selective schools</a> (government schools that select students on their academic or performing arts ability):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>draw in a high proportion of advantaged students, compounding the concentrations of the strugglers in comprehensive public schools.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-national-school-reform-agreement-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-school-funding-202847">What is the National School Reform Agreement and what does it have to do with school funding?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s their proposal?</h2>
<p>Greenwell and Bonnor offer a five-point plan, the first three of which are relatively uncontentious. </p>
<p>First, they want to fully fund school entitlements under the so-called “<a href="https://www.education.gov.au/school-funding/resources/review-funding-schooling-final-report-december-2011">Gonski model</a>”. This would ensure all schools get the funding resources they need to deliver quality learning. <a href="https://saveourschools.com.au/funding/labor-kicks-the-public-school-funding-can-down-the-road/">Some estimates</a> show government schools currently receive less than 90% of their entitlements.</p>
<p>Second, they call for a frank conversation on a new common framework for Australian education. This would include not only funding arrangements, but “commensurate obligations and responsibilities” on schools.</p>
<p>Third, convene a national summit at which “common interests are identified and areas of agreement are developed”. Greenwell and Bonnor are at pains to point out their suggestion is not to prescribe the total solution. Rather, they invite stakeholders to come together and design a system in which “equity and choice can be expanded in a win-win manner”.</p>
<h2>A change to school funding</h2>
<p>Greenwell and Bonnor’s fourth point is likely to be a catalyst for much debate: they propose full public funding for all non-government schools, within a commonly agreed regulatory framework. </p>
<p>Yes, this means non-government schools would be fully funded by the taxpayer. But they would not be able to charge their own fees. </p>
<p>The authors argue this would remove the fee barrier for non-government schools and open the possibility for any family to choose a non-government school without the impost of fees. It expands, rather than restricts, parental choice. And the bonus is non-government schools “could continue to apply enrolment and other policies necessary to promote their specific religious or educational ethos”.</p>
<p>If non-government schools don’t want to do this, they don’t have to, but there’s a catch. Schools that “continue to charge fees or reject inclusive enrolment obligations would no longer receive any public funding”. </p>
<p>Their fifth point is the creation of a new authority to oversee implementation and monitoring of the new framework.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">Still 'Waiting for Gonski' – a great book about the sorry tale of school funding</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Can it work?</h2>
<p>The Albanese government has committed to “work with” state and territory governments to get every school “on a path to 100% of its fair funding level”, as per the Gonski model. </p>
<p>This will come under the microscope as the next National School Reform Agreement is developed. This ties school reforms to the funding the federal government provides the states and territories. The <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/clare/expert-panel-inform-better-and-fairer-education-system">next agreement</a> is due to begin in January 2025 and is currently the subject of a review. </p>
<p>Whole holding a national summit should be straightforward, a national common framework has substantially more barriers to overcome. The multiple sectors of education governance in Australia (state/territory, Catholic, independent), and the multiple legal instruments that govern them, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uk-labour-party-wants-to-abolish-private-schools-could-we-do-that-in-australia-124271">make this very difficult</a>, even from a practical perspective.</p>
<p>At the simplest level, education remains a state/territory constitutional responsibility that seems unlikely to be collectively ceded back to the federal government any time soon. </p>
<p>The idea that non-government schools would have to choose between government funding or charging their own fees is also likely to be politically difficult. This is not to say the proposal is far-fetched. UNESCO, in its <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379875">Global Education Monitoring Report</a> has noted </p>
<blockquote>
<p>publicly funded education does not have to be publicly provided.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the review into the next National School Reform Agreement gathers pace, Greenwell and Bonnor’s invitation is for us all to come together with a vision for something different in Australian education. </p>
<p>Certainly the evidence strongly suggests what we are doing right now is not working.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Kidson 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>In a new report, education authors Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor propose a framework to increase parental choice and improve equity in the school system.Paul Kidson, Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024382023-03-24T01:04:37Z2023-03-24T01:04:37ZTeachers need a lot of things right now, but another curriculum ‘rewrite’ isn’t one of them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517290/original/file-20230323-1627-qu4iur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5463%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Less than a fortnight after teachers staged a <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/486101/in-pictures-teachers-strike">national strike</a>, education was back in the headlines with the National Party’s release of its <a href="https://www.national.org.nz/teaching_the_basics_brilliantly">curriculum policy</a> – or “rewrite”, as leader Christopher Luxon described it.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, the policy would require primary and intermediate schools to teach at least an hour a day each of reading, writing and maths. Learners in Years 3-8 would also be tested on their progress at least twice a year – not unlike the controversial (and subsequently dropped) <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/national-standards-ended">national standards</a> system from 2010 to 2018.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Chris Hipkins responded by arguing the school curriculum should ideally be a <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/chris-hipkins-doesn-t-want-education-curriculum-to-become-political-football-after-national-plan-rewrite.html">bipartisan issue</a> rather than a political football: “Parents, kids, teachers deserve to know that we’ve got a stable curriculum regardless of who the government is.”</p>
<p>Clearly, we all want the best learning outcomes for our nation’s children. But there are deep ideological divisions in the debate about how best to teach and test school children. It seems the curriculum will inevitably become a partisan issue as the election year unfolds.</p>
<p>Behind this immediate contest of ideas, however, sits a larger question: does the education system need yet another upheaval when the curriculum is already undergoing a “<a href="https://curriculumrefresh.education.govt.nz/">refresh</a>”?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1638986063141277697"}"></div></p>
<h2>How the curriculum works</h2>
<p>The school curriculum is not set in stone. Since the 1989 <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1989/0080/latest/DLM175959.html">Education Act</a>, schools have been self-governing and charged with developing their own curriculum.
These local curriculums are underpinned by the national <a href="https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum">New Zealand Curriculum</a> and <a href="https://tmoa.tki.org.nz/Te-Marautanga-o-Aotearoa">Te Marautanga o Aotearoa</a>. </p>
<p>The national curriculum and school curriculums work in tandem to balance national consistency with localised enrichment. As part of the curriculum refresh now under way, Te Mātaiaho/The Curriculum Framework will replace the New Zealand Curriculum. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://curriculumrefresh-live-assetstorages3bucket-l5w0dsj7zmbm.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-03/PDF%20Te%20Mataiaho%20March%202023.pdf?VersionId=4mGOdynJVtlzePlxTvWRyHJf_W5tw_WE">latest version of Te Mātaiaho</a>, which includes responses to school feedback last year, was released on March 17. It’s open for further input until May 12. Part of the process involves updating the eight learning areas – what many will recognise as the traditional school “subjects” – within a new “<a href="https://curriculumrefresh.education.govt.nz/whats-changing#understand-know-do-a-progression-focused-curriculum">understand, know, do</a>” model. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-new-zealand-chinese-experience-is-unique-and-important-the-new-history-curriculum-cant-ignore-it-160782">The New Zealand Chinese experience is unique and important — the new history curriculum can’t ignore it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This model establishes key learning stage “progressions”. While it doesn’t go as far as National’s proposed year-by-year testing system, it does set out five consecutive phases: for years 1-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-13. This replaces the current system of eight overlapping levels across years 0-13.</p>
<p>The new progressions are <a href="https://curriculumtimelines.education.govt.nz/refreshing-the-new-zealand-curriculum/">scheduled to be released</a> for consultation in phases, with full implementation planned for 2026. The first “refreshed” learning area – <a href="https://curriculumrefresh.education.govt.nz/social-sciences">te ao tangata/social sciences</a> – was released last year. It includes the new <a href="https://aotearoahistories.education.govt.nz/">Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories</a> curriculum, which schools are now required to teach.</p>
<p>The curriculum refresh also includes improvements to literacy and communication, and numeracy, including explicitly describing outcomes as a component of all learning areas. As part of the <a href="https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/changes-in-education/curriculum-and-assessment-changes/literacy-and-communication-and-maths-strategy/">literacy and maths strategy</a>, a <a href="https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/changes-in-education/curriculum-and-assessment-changes/common-practice-model/">common practice model</a> is already being developed to create greater clarity, coherence and consistency across the school years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517291/original/file-20230323-1043-r85dah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517291/original/file-20230323-1043-r85dah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517291/original/file-20230323-1043-r85dah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517291/original/file-20230323-1043-r85dah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517291/original/file-20230323-1043-r85dah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517291/original/file-20230323-1043-r85dah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517291/original/file-20230323-1043-r85dah.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Big workloads, inadequate funding: striking teachers arrive outside parliament on March 16.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Teachers on the front line</h2>
<p>The upshot of all this is that extensive curriculum work is well under way – and teachers and school leaders are already grappling with the implications. But the National Party curriculum policy implies these changes <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131581169/national-party-school-policy-focuses-on-daily-hourly-sessions-for-maths-reading-and-writing">won’t go far enough</a>. </p>
<p>If enacted, the proposed curriculum rewrite will require teachers to get their heads and hearts around even more change. This will include overseeing a new standardised testing regime in reading, writing and maths for years 3-8 – rather than solidifying their understanding of the current refresh.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/has-a-gap-in-old-school-handwriting-and-spelling-tuition-contributed-to-nzs-declining-literacy-scores-155371">Has a gap in old-school handwriting and spelling tuition contributed to NZ's declining literacy scores?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>More curriculum change is assuredly not what teachers were calling for when they <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/03/16/photos-teachers-nationwide-take-to-the-streets-for-day-of-strike-action/">went on strike</a> on March 16. Rather, they were drawing attention to working conditions and pay scales that haven’t kept pace with inflation. </p>
<p>Mainstream reporting and social media posts overflowed with teachers and principals sharing experiences of increasing concerns about the wellbeing of students and staff. They spoke of overwhelming workloads and inadequate funding to support students with complex learning and behavioural needs. </p>
<p>Christopher Luxon addressed this broader educational complexity head-on, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131581169/national-party-school-policy-focuses-on-daily-hourly-sessions-for-maths-reading-and-writing">speaking directly to teachers</a>: “In addition to teaching, you have become the front-line response to complex social, educational, housing and wellbeing challenges.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nzs-key-teacher-unions-now-reject-classroom-streaming-so-whats-wrong-with-grouping-kids-by-perceived-ability-192007">NZ's key teacher unions now reject classroom streaming. So what's wrong with grouping kids by perceived ability?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Beyond the school gates</h2>
<p>Of course, a strong curriculum and clear milestones for progress are important. But we also need to recognise that quality education occurs within a complex milieu of wider social and economic policies. </p>
<p>If Chris Hipkins’ desire for a bipartisan approach to education were to work, it would be good to see the educational policies of different political parties directly address the funding issue for schools. </p>
<p>Beyond that, how does school funding intersect with other policies targeting inequality and inequity outside the school gates? The same day National announced its curriculum policy, child poverty again <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/cost-of-living-child-poverty-levels-hardly-improving-still-12000-in-material-hardship/NAARKFE32NAW5GTERMAZ2QSOLY/#">made the headlines</a>. A <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/child-poverty-statistics-show-no-annual-change-in-the-year-ended-june-2022">new report</a> showed 10% of the nation’s children are living in material hardship. </p>
<p>Having school children arrive at school properly fed, warm, well dressed and ready to learn is surely the priority. Teachers will then be able to focus on implementing the curriculum for everyone’s benefit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathy Buntting is contributing to the writing of the science learning area within the current New Zealand curriculum refresh. </span></em></p>The National Party’s new curriculum policy proposes reforms, when there are already several underway. What schools and teachers really need is more funding and less change.Cathy Buntting, Director, Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011342023-03-22T12:38:51Z2023-03-22T12:38:51ZThis course uses ‘Abbott Elementary’ to examine critical issues in urban education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516705/original/file-20230321-2560-fsrmj6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C2%2C676%2C380&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The hit TV show 'Abbott Elementary' explores a variety of issues in education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://deadline.com/2022/07/abbott-elementary-season-2-episode-count-full-season-abc-comic-con-quina-brunson-1235074396/">ABC</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&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><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>“Public Education’s Possibilities and Predicaments: Exploring Portrayals of Critical Issues in ‘Abbott Elementary’”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>When the first episodes of “Abbott Elementary” aired in January 2022 and the show began getting widespread <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/arts/television/abbott-elementary.html">praise</a>, I started having interesting conversations with folks about schools and teaching based on what they had seen on the show. After episodes aired, colleagues, friends and neighbors all wanted to talk about issues like funding inequities, teacher shortages and charter schools.</p>
<p>I began thinking about how the show integrates commentary on these critical issues into its lighthearted “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/abc-s-abbott-elementary-mockumentary-genre-are-match-made-tv-ncna1288793">mockumentary</a>” style, simultaneously entertaining viewers and inviting them to consider their own perceptions of urban public schools. As a show <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-01-11/quinta-brunson-was-a-scaredy-cat-then-she-met-the-teacher-who-inspired-her-sitcom">inspired by a Black female teacher</a>, created by a Black female writer, Quinta Brunson, and led by a predominantly Black cast, it also tells the stories of an urban school in a way that highlights the humanity of students, teachers and communities who have elsewhere been portrayed negatively.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a yellow dress stands at the microphone holding a trophy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516446/original/file-20230320-2155-c7n9r5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Quinta Brunson, creator of ‘Abbott Elementary,’ accepts the award for Best Lead Performance in a New Scripted Series during the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards on March 4, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/quinta-brunson-accepts-the-best-lead-performance-in-a-new-news-photo/1471299603?phrase=Abbott%20Elementary&adppopup=true">Kevin Winter for Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I wanted to design a course that would use the show as an entry point to critical conversations, connecting the issues in each episode to research and policy.</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>First, students are introduced to various education issues by reading selected academic book chapters and research articles. We explore how they have seen this issue portrayed in news coverage, television shows and movies. For example, we begin by taking a look at the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/10/americas-public-school-teachers-are-far-less-racially-and-ethnically-diverse-than-their-students/">racial demographics of teachers and students</a>, particularly in urban schools.</p>
<p>According to the National Center for Education Statistics:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Overall, only 7% of public school teachers are Black, whereas 80% are white.</p></li>
<li><p>In urban public schools, 12% of teachers are Black, compared with 69% who are white.</p></li>
<li><p>In public schools with more than 90% of racial minority students, 20% of teachers are Black and only 43% are white.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We also look at the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1020655307664">portrayal of urban teachers in film</a>. The teacher-heroes of these films are generally white, middle-class outsiders. They are new to the school – or teaching, in general – and, through individual effort and a positive outlook, are able to transform a group of troubled students whom all the veteran teachers had failed.</p>
<p>We also use relevant episodes to explore issues such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290807400302">gifted programs</a>, the <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/709513">charter school movement</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X12473125">school discipline</a> and more.</p>
<p>At the end of the course, students work in groups to craft a pitch for a future episode of “Abbott Elementary” that addresses an issue not yet addressed by the show.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/11/abbott-elementarys-s2-premiere-breaks-records-for-abc.html">Millions of viewers</a> are tuning in each week to watch “Abbott Elementary.” It is a pop culture moment. However, the relevance of this course is not limited to the show’s popularity. Public education affects everyone. Education policies, such as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-curriculum-transparency-rcna12809">what should or should not be taught</a> in schools, and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/2_sc.asp">school choice</a> initiatives, including increasing the number of charter schools and providing vouchers for students to attend private schools, continue to be at the forefront of local, state and national politics.</p>
<p>This course is relevant because it creates a space for students to learn more about these issues and engage in informed, critical discussions through an accessible medium.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>While many issues, like school funding or discipline, are central to a single episode, the issue of charter schools is an <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/how-abbott-elementary-takes-on-the-charter-school-movement">overarching plot line</a> throughout Season Two. Understanding how charter schools operate, why they are marketed as a solution to troubled public schools and how they affect communities are all critical lessons from this course. </p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Anti-Racist-Educational-Leadership-and-Policy-Addressing-Racism-in-Public/Diem-Welton/p/book/9781138596993#">Anti-Racist Educational Leadership and Policy</a>,” a 2021 book co-authored by University of Missouri education professor Sara Diem and University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor Anjale Welton. The book breaks down complex policy issues by analyzing how policies address or fail to address racial equity.</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.hepg.org/hep-home/books/start-where-you-are,-but-don%E2%80%99t-stay-there-(1)">Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There</a>,” an award-winning 2020 book by Vanderbilt University education professor H. Richard Milner IV. The book deals with what teachers and school leaders must know to effectively serve students of color. </p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237679/for-white-folks-who-teach-in-the-hood-and-the-rest-of-yall-too-by-christopher-emdin/">For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood … and the Rest of Y'all Too</a>,” a 2016 book by University of Southern California education professor Christopher Emdin. Among the insights the book offers are those on how teachers can better relate to and motivate young students of color.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>When it comes to education issues, it can often feel like you have to be either for or against something – whether that something is charter schools, teachers unions, or zero-tolerance discipline policies. This binary thinking can’t accurately represent the nuance and messiness that is the reality of public education.</p>
<p>By integrating the pop culture perspective of “Abbott Elementary” with interdisciplinary scholarly perspectives, students will learn how to take a more critical and nuanced look at education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An education professor explains how a hit TV show about a struggling school became a jumping-off point for a course about urban education.Sara Jones, Assistant Professor of Elementary Education—Literacy, Illinois State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1962612023-03-08T13:41:29Z2023-03-08T13:41:29ZSchool choice proposals rarely go before voters – and typically fail when they do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511488/original/file-20230221-28-x0c9n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C38%2C8523%2C5652&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaks to supporters before signing a bill that creates education savings accounts in January 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PrivateSchoolsStateFunding/ab75378b2d084cfeb077faa3cae7b3d7/photo">AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Arizona lawmakers decided in late 2022 that the <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-splash/2022/12/10/214078-not-quite-universal-but-families-flocked-to-universal-voucher-program/">state will pay tuition, related education expenses or both</a> for children at any school parents select, including private and religious schools.</p>
<p>It’s the latest step in an effort to provide public funds for private schools that in Arizona began in 2011. And that step was taken along what I have discovered to be a familiar route.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KLVtdQYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education policy researcher</a>, I wanted to understand why these voucher programs are becoming more common despite evidence they <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-vouchers-expand-despite-evidence-of-negative-effects-117370">do not improve, and may even impede, students’ educational achievement</a>. Rather than put the question of whether to use public money for private schools before voters, advocates for choice almost always want state legislatures to make the decision instead. That may be because a careful look at the efforts suggests that if it were up to voters, school choice proposals would rarely succeed.</p>
<p>Lawmakers in <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/iowa-lawmakers-approves-public-money-for-private-school-students">Iowa</a>, <a href="https://alec.org/article/victory-for-west-virginia-families-historic-education-opportunity-program-declared-constitutional/">West Virginia</a> and <a href="https://www.education.nh.gov/news/second-year-education-freedom-accounts-prospering">New Hampshire</a> all recently passed plans similar to Arizona’s. In 2022, <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/betsy-devos-let-mi-kids-learn-scholarship-plan-submit-signatures">Michigan advocates – led by former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos</a> – chose to <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/10/let-mi-kids-learn-signatures-devos/10285200002/">petition legislators</a> to approve <a href="https://www.letmikidslearn.com/">such a plan</a> for over a million children, rather than seeking a public referendum on the issue.</p>
<p>Private and religious schools have traditionally been prohibited from receiving taxpayer dollars. But since <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice-in-america-dashboard-scia/">private school-choice programs</a> began in the 1990s, 32 states and the District of Columbia have adopted 76 school voucher or voucherlike programs that allow families to send their children to private schools at public expense, according to the pro-voucher group <a href="https://www.edchoice.org/school-choice-in-america-dashboard-scia/">EdChoice</a>. Additionally, <a href="https://charterschoolcenter.ed.gov/charter-schools-usa">45 states and Washington, D.C.</a>, have charter school programs, which are publicly funded but privately managed.</p>
<p>But of those 121 programs, only two have been approved by voters. The issue has been brought to referendum in various states 16 times since Michigan first voted on it in 1978 and has been rejected 14 times. In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/education/future-of-georgias-charter-schools-on-ballot.html">2012</a>, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_Charter_Schools,_Amendment_1_(2012)">Georgia voters</a> enabled state lawmakers to authorize charter schools, and Washington state voters <a href="https://dev.ballotpedia.org/Washington_Charter_School_Initiative,_Initiative_1240_(2012)">barely passed</a> a charter school initiative they <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/big-money-pushing-for-wash-charter-schools-gates-out-in-front/">had rejected twice before</a>.</p>
<h2>Parents’ interest growing</h2>
<p>Parents are taking advantage of those opportunities. There are <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/education-statistics-facts-about-american-schools/2019/01">50 million public school students</a> in grades K-12 in the U.S., of whom 3.4 million attend charter schools. About 5.5 million students are in private schools. The numbers are proportionately small, but growing.</p>
<p>For instance, from 2000 to 2016, the U.S. Department of Education reported the number of students in charter schools <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019106.pdf">increased more than fivefold</a>.</p>
<h2>Pressure on public schools</h2>
<p>Advocates for public schools argue that when public money is spent on private schools, it “<a href="https://networkforpubliceducation.org/privatization-toolkit/">[siphons] off students, resources and funding</a>” from public schools.</p>
<p>But supporters say voucher programs <a href="https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/here-are-10-reasons-school-choice-winning">usefully pressure public schools to improve</a> under threat of losing enrollment and funding.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/6540">still others</a> emphasize distinctions between <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/interactive-guide-to-school-choice.aspx">different types</a> of choice programs, <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/for-profit-charter-schools-evaluation-spending-outcomes">regulations and funding schemes</a>. For instance, some people support publicly funded charter schools as options within the public school system, but do not support vouchers allowing families to take tax dollars to help pay for private schools.</p>
<h2>Referendums failed</h2>
<p>The process by which these programs have become law started <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Education_Funds_Amendment,_Proposal_H_(1978)">in 1978 in Michigan</a> with petitions and referendums, but they largely failed. That 1978 proposal sought a statewide referendum to create vouchers and got on the ballot but was <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michigan_Education_Funds_Amendment,_Proposal_H_(1978)">rejected by a 3-to-1 margin</a>. A very similar Michigan petition drive in 2000 failed by a <a href="https://www.mackinac.org/3208">similarly large margin</a>. Referendum efforts in 2000 in California, and one in Utah in 2007, <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2008/04/01/an-idea-whose-time-has-gone/">also failed</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, more recent efforts aim to go through the legislature – even if laws that have passed have also been overturned by referendums later.</p>
<p>For instance, a 2017 Arizona law would have allowed students to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/04/07/arizona-gov-doug-ducey-signs-school-voucher-expansion/100159192/">use taxpayer dollars at private schools</a>. But before it could take effect, a petition drive gave voters a chance to <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/06/arizona-prop-305-results-voters-decide-school-vouchers/1809291002/">overturn the law</a>, which they did in 2018, by a <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/state/arizona-proposition-305-fails-reducing-school-vouchers-available-to-families">two-thirds majority</a>. </p>
<p>In 2022, state lawmakers passed an almost identical bill, and as he had in 2017, Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2022/07/07/ariz-governor-signs-universal-school-voucher-law-advocates-vow-fight/7827019001/">signed it into law on July 7, 2022</a>. A second petition drive to reverse it <a href="https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2022/09/30/petition-to-block-voucher-law-falls-short-application-deadline-extended/">failed to round up nearly 120,000 signatures</a> before the legal deadline, and the law took effect.</p>
<h2>A new effort in Michigan</h2>
<p>But in 2022, a new petition drive arose, backed by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a Michigan native and former state Republican Party chair. Instead of asking voters to approve the idea, however, it used a <a href="https://crcmich.org/michigans-citizen-initiative-petition-process-in-2022-a-lot-of-ballot-proposals">provision of Michigan law</a> that meant the petition <a href="https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/betsy-devos-let-mi-kids-learn-scholarship-plan-submit-signatures">positioned legislators to pass the law themselves</a>. </p>
<p>That process sought to preempt another referendum on school choice, as well as a <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2021/11/1/22758182/michigan-voucher-proponents-plan-petition-to-circumvent-veto">likely veto</a> from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.</p>
<p>When voters flipped control of the Michigan Legislature from Republican to Democratic in November 2022, <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/9/23547548/michigan-devos-school-choice-private-schools-petitions-withdrawn-let-mi-kids-learn">DeVos’ group withdrew its petition</a>, effectively killing the proposal.</p>
<p>The next time a school choice program is put before lawmakers, it’s worth asking whether the program would pass if it were put before voters. History shows the answer is usually a resounding “no.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Lubienski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most school-choice programs in the US have been approved by lawmakers. But when asked for their views, voters have overwhelmingly rejected them.Christopher Lubienski, Professor of Education Policy, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1853942022-06-27T19:51:23Z2022-06-27T19:51:23ZWhat does equity in schools look like? And how is it tied to growing teacher shortages?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470988/original/file-20220627-17-xlnih3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5244%2C3522&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared victory on election night, he said he <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-22/anthony-albanese-acceptance-speech-full-transcript/101088736">wanted to unite Australians</a> around “our shared values of fairness and opportunity, and hard work and kindness to those in need”. </p>
<p>So what would this look like in Australian schools? Schools, after all, are where a society that believes in fairness and opportunity must begin. Equity involves more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">fairly funding schools</a>. </p>
<p>It is about matching teachers’ passion with the respect, time, resources and conditions that enable them to do what they signed up to do: make a difference in students’ lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-60-of-teachers-say-they-want-out-what-is-labor-going-to-do-for-an-exhausted-school-sector-183452">Almost 60% of teachers say they want out. What is Labor going to do for an exhausted school sector?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Based on <a href="https://www.monash.edu/education/research/projects/qproject">our research</a> into quality use of evidence do drive quality in education, I suggest equity, hard work and kindness should underpin school policy in three ways.</p>
<h2>1. Ensure fairness in funding</h2>
<p>The first priority is fairness in funding. It has been ten years since the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/senate/school_funding/school_funding/report/a03">Gonski review proposed</a> a more equitable approach to school funding. The goal was to ensure differences in students’ educational outcomes are not the product of differences in wealth, income or power.</p>
<p>Since then, the approach has been diluted and gone backwards.</p>
<p>While resourcing to schools increased by over A$2 billion over a decade, the Grattan Institute <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/lopsided-funding-gives-more-public-money-to-private-schools/">found</a> that once wage growth is taken into account, private schools received over 80% of this extra funding despite educating less than 20% of Australia’s most disadvantaged students.</p>
<p>COVID-19 <a href="https://theconversation.com/almost-60-of-teachers-say-they-want-out-what-is-labor-going-to-do-for-an-exhausted-school-sector-183452">has intensified</a> disparities that are hard-baked into Australia schooling through the historical <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">segregation of schools</a>.</p>
<p>The basis of the reform therefore needs to be reviewed. As then Prime Minister Julia Gillard, a former education minister, effectively tied a hand behind the government’s back by committing to the principle that <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/no-gonski-nirvana-why-australia-s-most-ambitious-education-reforms-have-failed-20220215-p59wpj.html">no school would lose funding</a> as a result of the reforms.</p>
<p>This distorted Gonski’s needs-based aspiration.</p>
<p>The needs-based funding that needs to be directed to public schools for them to be fully funded according to the Gonski model equates to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/13/the-gonski-failure-why-did-it-happen-and-who-is-to-blame-for-the-defrauding-of-public-schools">more than $1,000 per student each year</a>. But ensuring all schools get a fair share of public funding is only a part of the challenge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing shortfalls and excesses in School Resource Standard (SRS) funding by state and territory, 2018-2023" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-resourcing-board/resources/review-needs-based-funding-requirements-final-report-december-2019">Source: Review of needs‑based funding requirements: final report, December 2019/DESE</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">Still 'Waiting for Gonski' – a great book about the sorry tale of school funding</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Reward those who choose to teach</h2>
<p>A second priority relates to fairly rewarding the hard work of teachers. This should include incentives to enter the profession, and better pay and working conditions to keep them there.</p>
<p>Teacher shortages are <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-education-minister-jason-clare-can-fix-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-but-not-with-labors-election-plan-184321">reaching critical levels</a>. Modelling in Queensland, for example, shows <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/16/queensland-to-have-one-of-nations-worst-teacher-shortages-modelling-suggests">a 25% decline</a> in state high school teaching graduates over five years. Secondary school enrolments are predicted to increase by 13% over the same period.</p>
<p>As Southern Cross University education professor Pasi Sahlberg notes, teachers “<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-education-minister-jason-clare-can-fix-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-but-not-with-labors-election-plan-184321">start excited and depart exhausted</a>”.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-education-minister-jason-clare-can-fix-the-teacher-shortage-crisis-but-not-with-labors-election-plan-184321">New Education Minister Jason Clare can fix the teacher shortage crisis – but not with Labor's election plan</a>
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<p>During the campaign, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/labor-to-pay-highachievers-up-to-12000-a-year-to-study-as-school-teachers-at-university/news-story/8ba0f18569b2842842b123e45c7e370e#:%7E:text=High-achieving%2520students%2520would%2520be%2520paid%2520up%2520to%2520%252412%252C000,they%2520receive%2520an%2520ATAR%2520of%252080%2520or%2520more.">Labor promised</a> high-achieving students would be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/high-achievers-to-get-up-to-12k-a-year-to-become-teachers-under-labor-20220508-p5ajj8.html">paid up to $12,000 a year</a> to study education to lift teacher standards.</p>
<p>“We want to make sure our kids get the best education they can. That means we have to make sure they get the best-quality teaching,” Albanese said. </p>
<p>Labor also announced plans to double the number of high-achieving students enrolling in teacher education over the next decade, from around 1,800 a year at present to 3,600.</p>
<p>Also, about 5,000 students who receive an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) of 80 <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-to-recruit-more-high-achievers-into-education-20220508-p5ajjg">will be able to get</a> an annual $10,000 payment over their four-year degree. An extra $2,000 a year has been promised to students who commit to teach in regional areas – the worst affected by teacher shortages.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1523454888214396928"}"></div></p>
<p>Providing incentives like these might work – particularly as <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-to-recruit-more-high-achievers-into-education-20220508-p5ajjg">only 3% of high achievers</a> in Australia select teaching for undergraduate study. Contrast this to the 19% who select science for undergraduate study.</p>
<p>Three decades ago, <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-to-recruit-more-high-achievers-into-education-20220508-p5ajjg">about ten times this proportion</a> of high achievers chose to study teaching.</p>
<p>But, unlike other fields such as agriculture, such rankings are <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=3608">less reliable as predicators of performance</a> in education. It is <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=3608">rightly argued</a> that other skills, such as high-level interpersonal skills, are important to the quality of teaching, alongside high-level literacy and numeracy.</p>
<p>We need to be thinking more boldly and expansively about how we can inspire and assess people to enter the profession.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-teachers-pay-in-australia-it-starts-out-ok-but-goes-downhill-pretty-quickly-122782">Three charts on teachers' pay in Australia: it starts out OK, but goes downhill pretty quickly</a>
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<h2>3. Make schools better for teaching</h2>
<p>But even if such measures might attract new teachers, attrition rates are also concerning.</p>
<p>Educators persistently indicate they are <a href="https://www.agsa.org.au/research/australian-principal-occupational-health-safety-and-wellbeing-survey-riley-et-al-2021/#:%7E:text=The%2520annual%2520Australian%2520Principal%2520Occupational%2520Health%252C%2520Safety%2520and,per%2520week%2520in%25202020%252C%2520while%2520twenty%2520per%2520cent%25E2%2580%25A6">suffering stress</a>, burnout, abuse from parents and excessive workload, which takes away from teaching students.</p>
<p>Increased workload pressures mean they have less time to focus on teaching students. It ultimately drives many out of teaching.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-21/nsw-teachers-to-strike-over-pay-and-conditions-next-week/101171092">Strikes</a> for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/14/nsw-education-department-launches-legal-action-against-teachers-union-over-may-strikes">better pay in New South Wales</a> in relation to the government’s 2.5% wage cap for public servants are on one level about fair pay, but also reflect deeper concerns about working conditions.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/read-the-room-premier-performance-pay-for-teachers-will-make-the-crisis-worse-185406">Read the room, Premier. Performance pay for teachers will make the crisis worse</a>
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<p>Teachers do not feel respected. A <a href="https://www.monash.edu/thank-your-teacher">2020 study</a> found nearly three-quarters of educators felt underappreciated.</p>
<p>The challenge of keeping teachers in the profession therefore entails much more than pay. <a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-salaries-might-attract-teachers-but-pay-isnt-one-of-the-top-10-reasons-for-leaving-177825">Research</a> has shown salary ranks after factors such as commitment to the profession, job satisfaction and positive relationships with students and colleagues. The most common reasons for leaving include workloads, being unappreciated, stress and burnout from years of struggle in substandard conditions.</p>
<p>Fostering excellence in teaching is therefore not just about attracting quality candidates, nor is it only about paying them at the right level once they become teachers. It’s about respecting their judgment and professionalism, as well as supporting them throughout their careers.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/higher-salaries-might-attract-teachers-but-pay-isnt-one-of-the-top-10-reasons-for-leaving-177825">Higher salaries might attract teachers but pay isn't one of the top 10 reasons for leaving</a>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1173340747384414215"}"></div></p>
<p>Even though pay might be poor <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-teachers-pay-in-australia-it-starts-out-ok-but-goes-downhill-pretty-quickly-122782">in comparison with other professions</a> and the workload overwhelming, educators continue to teach because they are driven by a deep, passionate moral purpose to make a difference in kids’ lives.</p>
<p>We understand the challenges. Let’s hope kindness, fairness and a clear moral purpose drive the policy of Australia’s new government to address current problems as well as deeply embedded historical legacies.</p>
<p>The Albanese government has a tough, complex job – not unlike teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185394/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucas Walsh 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>Difficulties in attracting and retaining teachers have a lot to do with the conditions they find themselves working in. Here are 3 ways to develop a school system that’s fairer and better for all.Lucas Walsh, Professor and Director of the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1846182022-06-22T01:56:20Z2022-06-22T01:56:20ZState funds for students at religious schools? Supreme Court says ‘yes’ in Maine case – but consequences could go beyond<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470121/original/file-20220621-7816-k6m80x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C9%2C996%2C672&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students walk by security fences installed in front of the Supreme Court.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/student-tour-groups-walk-past-the-u-s-supreme-court-news-photo/1404048984?adppopup=true">Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For nearly three-quarters of a century, one issue in education has come up before the Supreme Court more than any other: <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/eda_fac_pub/71/">disputes over religion</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf">Carson v. Makin</a>, a case about Maine’s tuition assistance program for students in districts without high schools of their own, continues the pattern – with potential consequences for schools, families and courts across the country.</p>
<p>On June 21, 2022, the court ruled that parents in rural districts lacking public high schools, but who receive state aid to send their children to private schools instead, can use that money for tuition at schools with faith-based curricula. In <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf">a 6-3 order</a>, the court held that Maine’s requirement that tuition assistance payments be used at “nonsectarian” schools violated <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/free_exercise_clause">the free exercise clause</a> of the First Amendment because parents could not send their children to the schools of their choice.</p>
<p>In two <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1195_g314.pdf">recent cases</a> on <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">similar issues</a>, the court ruled in favor of families. Carson continues this trend of allowing more public support to students in faith-based schools, which has been developing for <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/96-552.ZS.html">more than 20 years</a>.</p>
<p>To the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/School_choice_in_the_United_States">school choice</a> movement – which advocates affording families more options beyond traditional public schools, but having the government help foot the bill – Carson represents a chance for more parents to give their children an education in line with their religious beliefs. </p>
<p>Opponents fear that cases such as Carson could establish a precedent of requiring taxpayer dollars to fund religious teachings. Based on its most recent judgments, many legal analysts maintain that the current court <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-supreme-court-found-its-faith-and-put-religious-liberty-on-a-winning-streak-158509">is increasingly sympathetic</a> to claims that religious liberties are being threatened but, in so doing, is creating too close of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/06/30/how-supreme-courts-decision-religious-schools-just-eroded-separation-between-church-state/">a relationship between religion and government</a>.</p>
<h2>SCOTUS’ shift in thought</h2>
<p>Religion in schools emerged as a significant issue at the Supreme Court starting in 1947’s <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/330us1">Everson v. Board of Education</a>, when the justices upheld a New Jersey law allowing school boards to reimburse parents for transportation costs to and from schools, including ones that are religiously affiliated. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">the First Amendment</a>, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” – an idea courts often interpreted as requiring “a wall of separation between church and state.” In Everson, however, the Supreme Court upheld the law as not violating the First Amendment because children, not their schools, were the primary beneficiaries.</p>
<p>Everson signaled the start of the “<a href="https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/educationlaw/n62.xml">child benefit test</a>,” an evolving legal concept that I have written about in <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">my work on education law</a>. According to this test, which has guided many of the court’s decisions about religion, money and education, children who attend faith-based schools are the primary beneficiaries of the state aid they receive, rather than their schools. In other words, this logic reasons that the government is not directly supporting particular religions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A yellow school bus stops, with its 'Stop' sign visible, along a country road in autumn." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470111/original/file-20220621-7816-jw2nyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470111/original/file-20220621-7816-jw2nyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470111/original/file-20220621-7816-jw2nyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470111/original/file-20220621-7816-jw2nyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470111/original/file-20220621-7816-jw2nyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470111/original/file-20220621-7816-jw2nyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470111/original/file-20220621-7816-jw2nyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&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">Just how far can public funds go to support students in religious schools?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/school-bus-on-country-road-royalty-free-image/AB07269?adppopup=true">Stephen Simpson/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In recent years, though, the court has expanded the boundaries of what aid is allowed – as it has now done again with Carson. The decision extends the Supreme Court’s two most recent judgments on aid to students in faith-based schools: In 2017’s <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2016/15-577">Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer</a>, the Supreme Court reasoned that states cannot deny religious people or religious institutions generally available public benefits simply because they are religious. Three years later, in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/18-1195">Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</a>, the court decided the state’s tuition tax credit program cannot bar private, faith-based “schools from public benefits solely because of the religious character of the schools.”</p>
<h2>Mainers’ education</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.maine.gov/legis/const/">Maine’s Constitution</a> mandates the creation of public schools. But many rural towns don’t have <a href="https://www.maine.gov/doe/sites/maine.gov.doe/files/inline-files/SAU2020_21Map_FINAL.pdf">their own secondary schools</a>: In fact, of the 260 “school administrative units” in Maine, more than half <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1088/197324/20211022151803212_Brief%20of%20Respondent%2010%2022%2021.pdf">lack a secondary school</a>. </p>
<p>In areas without access to public schools, Maine law allowed students to attend other public or private schools at public expense, but not faith-based ones. <a href="https://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/20-a/title20-Asec2951.html">The state requires</a> approved schools to be nonsectarian, “in accordance with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”</p>
<p>Carson v. Makin began in 2018 when three sets of parents unsuccessfully filed suit on behalf of their children, arguing that the rule discriminated on the basis of religion. The <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-med-1_18-cv-00327/summary">federal trial court</a> in Maine ruled in favor of the state, affirming that its tuition aid requirements did not violate the rights of the parents or their children. On appeal, the First Circuit unanimously affirmed <a href="https://casetext.com/case/carson-v-makin">in favor of the state</a>, rejecting all the parental claims.</p>
<h2>The decision</h2>
<p>When, as the parents in Carson alleged, state actions limit fundamental rights such as free exercise of religion, courts apply what is called “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/strict_scrutiny">strict scrutiny</a>,” meaning that public officials must prove they have a “compelling interest” in restricting such a right. When the Supreme Court applies “strict scrutiny,” as it did in Carson, state restrictions typically fail.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf">Writing for the court</a>, Chief Justice John Roberts declared that the Maine program “effectively penalizes the free exercise of religion.” Relying on Trinity Lutheran and Espinoza, he wrote that “a neutral benefit program in which public funds flow to religious organizations through the independent choices of private benefit recipients does not offend the Establishment Clause.” He also declared that a state’s interest in not violating the establishment clause does not justify excluding people from a public benefit because they are religious.</p>
<p>The previous recent cases dealt with schools’ status as religious schools, rather than whether their actual teaching is religious. <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca1/19-1746/19-1746-2020-10-29.html">Lower courts’ decisions</a> about Carson, on the other hand, looked at how religious schools would actually use the funds: whether they would provide an equivalent education to the one that Maine’s public schools deliver.</p>
<p>But the Supreme Court held that both “status-based” and “use-based” refusals to allow state aid for students at religious schools are “offensive to the Free Exercise Clause.”</p>
<p>As often occurs in such high-profile cases, the dissenters disagreed strongly. Justice Stephen Breyer, joined in full by Justice Elena Kagan and partially by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, wrote of “an increased risk of religiously based social conflict when government promotes religion in the public school system.”</p>
<p>Dissenting separately, Sotomayor expressed concern that Carson is “leading us to a place where separation of church and state is a constitutional slogan, not a constitutional commitment. Today, the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf">constitutional violation</a>.”</p>
<p>Carson is unlikely to end disagreements over public funds and religion – or religion and schools more generally. But two clear points emerge in Carson’s wake: the court’s ongoing support for the “child benefit test” and its continuing to lower the wall of separation between church and state in education.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/money-schools-and-religion-a-controversial-combo-returns-to-the-supreme-court-168232">an article</a> originally published on Nov. 29, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Once again, the court has expanded the legal ways that public funds can be used for students at religious institutions.Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1834522022-05-24T20:05:05Z2022-05-24T20:05:05ZAlmost 60% of teachers say they want out. What is Labor going to do for an exhausted school sector?<p>During the 2022 federal election campaign, <a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-dont-vote-but-teachers-and-parents-sure-do-what-are-the-parties-offering-on-schools-182597">schools barely rated a mention</a>. </p>
<p>While the Labor government’s cabinet will not be finalised until next week, we expect Tanya Plibersek to become education minister. She will have plenty to do. </p>
<p>The education sector presents the new government with several pressing challenges. These range from <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00049441221086654">teacher shortages</a> to concerns about school funding and student and teacher safety and well-being. </p>
<p>Here are some of the good, the bad, and the missing from Labor’s existing plans. </p>
<h2>The good</h2>
<p>With COVID still circulating widely, <a href="https://openletter.earth/open-letter-we-must-continue-to-protect-all-australians-e2e85395">health experts say there is more to be done</a> to ensure students and teachers are safe in schools. </p>
<p>To answer this call, Labor has promised A$440 million for new ventilation systems and open-air learning spaces, as well as support for mental health services. This is a good start. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-almost-like-a-second-home-why-students-want-schools-to-do-more-about-mental-health-179644">'It's almost like a second home': why students want schools to do more about mental health</a>
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<p>Labor will also spend <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/safe-kids-are-esmart-kids">$6 million</a> on a digital licence for school students. As Plibersek explained, “this is the pen licence for the digital age”, helping kids stay safe and use the internet wisely. There will also be a program for secondary students to think more critically online.</p>
<p>Schools and parents are likely to embrace this initiative, especially given how much virtual and in-person learning have become intertwined during the pandemic. However, some computer experts say it needs <a href="https://news.csu.edu.au/opinion/proposed-$6-million-esmart-digital-license-program-not-enough-to-keep-children-safe">greater funding</a> to be effective. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tanya Plibersek speaks to school children." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464907/original/file-20220524-21-iwjk34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464907/original/file-20220524-21-iwjk34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464907/original/file-20220524-21-iwjk34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464907/original/file-20220524-21-iwjk34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464907/original/file-20220524-21-iwjk34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464907/original/file-20220524-21-iwjk34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464907/original/file-20220524-21-iwjk34.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tanya Plibersek has been Labor’s education spokesperson since 2016, and is expected to be the new education minister.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glenn Hunt/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Labor’s proposal also focuses on individual student privacy and safety, which some experts <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-only-politicians-focused-on-the-school-issues-that-matter-this-election-is-a-chance-to-get-them-to-do-that-177554">claim oversimplifies the issue</a>. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://educationhq.com/news/what-are-the-dangers-tech-companies-influence-growing-in-schools-expert-warns-118621/">mounting concern</a> about the increased involvement of private ed-tech companies in education. A recent <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17508487.2020.1855597?casa_token=PhiHO4ZRgJ8AAAAA%3AXdErgDJYQVQmnqGtdS-gY8hGp1Ein3fpryyluK8te5LN9AYqKE59vxDJMhbCqoZNZA8EjETReOGa">analysis</a> found that data collected through Google Classroom, for example, can be used for improving other Google products. As these actors play an increasingly important role in schools, the government has a responsibility to make sure private involvement is held to account and monitored closely. </p>
<h2>The bad</h2>
<p>The greatest emergency in education right now is the growing <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2022/01/19/covid-and-schools-australia-teacher-shortage-crisis-education-expert.html">teacher shortage across Australia</a>. </p>
<p>Teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers, with no end in sight for when this might turn around. Monash University education researcher Amanda Heffernan and colleagues <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00049441221086654">recently surveyed</a> 2,444 Australian primary and secondary school teachers, and found a staggering 59% said they intended to leave the profession. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-and-schools-australia-is-about-to-feel-the-full-brunt-of-its-teacher-shortage-174885">COVID and schools: Australia is about to feel the full brunt of its teacher shortage</a>
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<p>Labor campaigned on this awareness but offered a solution that many experts warn is misguided. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/09/labor-to-announce-scholarship-plan-for-high-achieving-students-to-become-teachers">plan</a> is to offer high-achievers (based on ATAR scores over 80) $10,000 per year of study to do an education degree. Students who commit to remote teaching will be offered $12,000 per year. </p>
<p>Labor is right to acknowledge this looming crisis, and to consider financial supplements as a potential remedy. However, the proposal fundamentally misunderstands the reasons teachers are leaving in droves. </p>
<p>Their narrow focus on recruitment <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00049441221086654">fails to address</a> the unbearable workloads, poor working conditions and excessive testing that created the problem in the first place. Teachers are feeling <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0305764X.2021.2002811">demoralised, exhausted and undervalued</a>, which has only been exacerbated by increased responsibilities during COVID. </p>
<p>Since the time of the announcement, no education expert or major teacher organisation has publicly praised this initiative, which is quite telling. If Labor ignores the root causes of declining retention numbers, and fails to establish a long-term and meaningful recruitment strategy, this problem will continue to worsen over the coming years. </p>
<h2>What’s missing?</h2>
<p>Labor has been surprisingly quiet on the issue of school funding, despite this being one of its <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/labor-commits-to-fully-funding-gonski-as-part-of-election-year-education-reform-plan-20160128-gmfovf.html">major priorities in the past</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A teacher speaks to primary students, who are sitting on the floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464909/original/file-20220524-43418-xdk3at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464909/original/file-20220524-43418-xdk3at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464909/original/file-20220524-43418-xdk3at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464909/original/file-20220524-43418-xdk3at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464909/original/file-20220524-43418-xdk3at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464909/original/file-20220524-43418-xdk3at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464909/original/file-20220524-43418-xdk3at.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">
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<span class="caption">School funding has been an elephant in the room during the campaign.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erik Anderson/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Concern about inequitable funding between government and non-government schools continues to be a hot topic for <a href="https://theconversation.com/still-waiting-for-gonski-a-great-book-about-the-sorry-tale-of-school-funding-178016">education experts and parents alike</a>. Earlier this year, public school advocacy group Save our Schools <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/16/private-school-funding-has-increased-at-five-times-rate-of-public-schools-analysis-shows">analysed</a> ten years of funding data. It found funding for public schools increased by $703 per student, while Catholic and independent schools increased by $3,338 per student. </p>
<p>Now with concerns over “learning loss” from COVID, these disparities are even more troubling. Therefore, it is disappointing Labor hasn’t more forcefully addressed the need for greater equity of funding and resources across the various school sectors. </p>
<p>However, with the Greens potentially <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/green-wave-in-brisbane-gives-party-influence-over-labor-government-20220521-p5ancv.html">having more influence</a> in federal parliament, this issue may receive more attention. The Greens campaigned on fully funding the <a href="https://theconversation.com/catholic-schools-arent-all-the-same-and-gonski-2-0-reflects-this-93722">Gonski recommendations</a> with a promise of $49 billion for public schools. </p>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>There are other important issues glossed over in Labor’s education plans, which also boil down to equity. </p>
<p>At the top of this list is the need to redress the historically under-resourced schools that primarily serve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Similarly, schools are becoming <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-schools-are-becoming-more-segregated-this-threatens-student-outcomes-155455">more segregated</a> based on students’ relative advantage. This means disadvantaged students are concentrated in disadvantaged schools, which has big implications for students’ achievement and a “fair go”. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-big-issues-in-higher-education-demand-the-new-governments-attention-183349">3 big issues in higher education demand the new government's attention</a>
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<p>Having Labor education ministers at the federal and most of the state levels might mean greater policy coherence overall. However, I would be reluctant to predict a complete ceasefire over some contentious matters, such as the ongoing <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/national-curriculum-wars-important-to-ensure-the-best-outcome-for-kids-acara-boss-20220301-p5a0km.html">curriculum wars</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Holloway receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Schools barely rated a mention in the election campaign. But the incoming Albanese government faces a sector in crisis.Jessica Holloway, Senior Research DECRA Fellow, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1810302022-04-15T12:12:14Z2022-04-15T12:12:14ZLegacy of Jim Crow still affects funding for public schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458256/original/file-20220414-12-njujv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3404%2C2440&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School funding inequities persist along racial and economic lines. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/freshman-students-walk-the-hallway-in-between-classes-news-photo/1231511735?adppopup=true">David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nearly 70 years ago – in its 1954 <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/347/483/USSC_PRO_347_483_1">Brown v. Board</a> decision – the Supreme Court framed racial segregation as the cause of educational inequality. It did not, however, challenge the lengths to which states went to ensure the unequal funding of Black schools.</p>
<p>Before Brown, Southern states were using segregation to signify and tangibly reinforce <a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-segregation.html">second-class citizenship</a> for Black people in the United States. The court in Brown deemed that segregation was inherently unequal. Even if the schools were “equalized” on all “tangible factors,” segregation remained a problem and physical integration was the cure, the Court concluded.</p>
<p>That framing rightly focused on segregation’s immediate horror – excluding students from schools based on the color of their skin – but obscured an important fact. In addition to requiring school segregation, many states also had long segregated school funding. Some had used “<a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469638942/racial-taxation">racially distinct tax</a>” policies that reserved separate funds for white and Black schools. Other states had <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1084950?seq=1">moved school funding responsibility and control</a> from state officials to local communities. Local officials could then <a href="https://www.law.ua.edu/pubs/lrarticles/Volume%2065/Issue%202/11%20Guyse%20519-538.pdf">ensure inequality without any specific law mandating it</a>.</p>
<p>Brown’s focus on physical segregation inadvertently left important and less obvious aspects of local funding inequality unchecked. Those practices still drive underfunding in predominantly poor and minority schools. Through the University of South Carolina School of Law’s <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/law/centers/constitutional_law/index.php">Constitutional Law Center</a>, since 2021 we have been documenting the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4082368">historical connection</a> between segregation and states’ reliance on local school funding. In our view, until states stop relying so heavily on local school funding, the equal educational opportunities that Brown first sought will remain out of reach for K-12 students in the 21st century. </p>
<h2>What’s wrong with local funding</h2>
<p>A large body of evidence shows “<a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/how-money-matters-report">money matters</a>.” </p>
<p>Increased spending <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28517/w28517.pdf">improves</a> college attendance rates, graduation rates and test scores. But, as a 2018 report revealed, school districts enrolling “the most students of color receive <a href="https://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FundingGapReport_2018_FINAL.pdf">about $1,800, or 13%, less per student”</a> than districts serving the fewest students of color.</p>
<p>A more recent <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/costs-cutting-school-spending-lessons-from-great-recession/">analysis</a> further demonstrated that school funding cuts during the Great Recession disproportionately affected Black students and exacerbated achievement gaps. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black man teaches a classroom full of students." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458257/original/file-20220414-24-yclruz.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>
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<span class="caption">In most U.S. states, local school funding drives more resources toward middle-income students than poor students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kent-taylor-state-administrator-superintendent-for-the-news-photo/564003467?adppopup=true">Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Most school funding gaps have a simple explanation: Public school budgets rely heavily on <a href="https://apps.urban.org/features/school-funding-do-poor-kids-get-fair-share/">local property taxes</a>. Communities with low property values can <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/411/1">tax themselves at much higher rates</a> than others but still fail to generate anywhere near the the same level of resources as other communities. </p>
<p>In fact, in <a href="https://apps.urban.org/features/school-funding-do-poor-kids-get-fair-share/">46 of 50 states</a>, local school funding schemes drive more resources to middle-income students than poor students. The local funding gap between districts mostly serving middle-income versus poor students in <a href="https://apps.urban.org/features/school-funding-do-poor-kids-get-fair-share/">New Jersey</a>, for example, is $3,460 per pupil. While state and federal programs often send additional funds to poor students, they are insufficient to fully meet the <a href="https://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FundingGapReport_2018_FINAL.pdf">additional needs of low-income students</a>.</p>
<h2>Missed opportunities to cure local funding</h2>
<p>In Brown v. Board, the court glossed over the history of school segregation and its nuances. The court said it was impossible to “turn the clock back to 1868,” when the nation adopted the Fourteenth Amendment, or “even 1896,” when the court authorized segregation. Instead, it <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/347/483/USSC_PRO_347_483_1">declared</a> that “we must consider public education in the light of its full development and its present place in American life throughout the Nation.”</p>
<p>This pivot let the court tackle segregation on a slate scrubbed clean of history’s mess. But it also deprived the court of any serious consideration of Southern states’ complex and racially motivated system of local school funding.</p>
<p>Later court decisions did not even recognize that a problem with local funding might exist. To the contrary, they put a preference on local funding over remedying inequality. In the 1973 case of San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the court rejected a challenge to the inequality local school funding causes, reasoning that “local control” over school funding was <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/411/1">“vital to continued public support of the schools”</a> and “of overriding importance from an educational standpoint as well.”</p>
<p>A year later, in Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court blocked a desegregation remedy that would have spanned multiple districts. Finances and local autonomy were at the heart of the court’s rationale. It <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/418/717">wrote</a>, “No single tradition in public education is more deeply rooted than local control over the operation of schools.” In its view, desegregation between districts would destroy that tradition and create a host of problems regarding local school funding.</p>
<p>To be sure, those decisions did not preclude desegregation within individual districts. But the Court declared desegregation and school funding inequality that occurs between school districts – as opposed to within school districts – as largely beyond the reach of federal judicial power.</p>
<h2>Funding, control and segregation</h2>
<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4082368">Our research</a> reveals that during <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-constitutional-right-to-education-is-long-overdue-88445">the South’s Reconstruction</a>, Black people and progressive whites saw <a href="https://www.ednc.org/deep-rooted-a-brief-history-of-race-and-education-in-north-carolina/">state control</a> as the solution to inadequate and unequal education. They adopted <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2437-9.html">policies to that effect</a>, many of which were <a href="https://review.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/03/70-Stan.-L.-Rev.-735.pdf">enshrined in state constitutions</a> rather than laws reversible by the legislature. </p>
<p>Local communities were certainly important to the implementation of schools, but states like <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40703363?seq=7">Texas</a> and <a href="https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/public-school-system-in-virginia-establishment-of-the/">Virginia</a> centralized school administration, school finance and a variety of other policies. Some states, such as <a href="https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/South-Carolina-Constitutional-Convention">South Carolina</a>, placed the core issue of physical segregation under state control and prohibited it outright. </p>
<p>Then, during the Jim Crow era, localism became the tool to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1084950?seq=1">reverse this progress and equality</a>. States <a href="https://www.ednc.org/deep-rooted-a-brief-history-of-race-and-education-in-north-carolina/">increased reliance on local taxation</a>, gave local <a href="https://www.johnmarshall.edu/lawreview/current-volume/volume-3-number-2/">white officials discretion</a> over state funds, and <a href="https://www.law.ua.edu/pubs/lrarticles/Volume%2065/Issue%202/11%20Guyse%20519-538.pdf">constitutionally secured segregation</a>. Some went so far as to craft <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469638942/racial-taxation/">color-coded funding systems</a> where white taxes <a href="https://www.ednc.org/deep-rooted-a-brief-history-of-race-and-education-in-north-carolina/">funded white schools</a> exclusively. </p>
<p>Others, like <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433007186806&view=1up&seq=80&skin=2021&q1=%22thus%20designated%22">South Carolina</a>, achieved the same end by letting taxpayers select which of the segregated schools would receive their funds. Southern leaders openly linked local funding and control to the <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/journal-of-the-constitutional-convention-of-the-state-of-south-carolina/oclc/15184574">“wisdom” of segregation</a>. </p>
<p>The development of Northern local <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&context=nulr">school systems</a> was historically distinct. Yet, even in some Northern states, racial antagonism and concerns over segregation prompted pushes for <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/black-struggle-for-public-schooling-in-nineteenth-century-illinois/oclc/459793798">local decision-making</a>. More generally, some Northern states followed a trajectory similar to Southern states: Illinois, for example, imposed a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40194509?seq=41">statewide property tax</a> for <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/black-struggle-for-public-schooling-in-nineteenth-century-illinois/oclc/459793798">white education</a> with supplemental local funding before the Civil War. Ironically, though, it ultimately became one of the states <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020301.pdf">most dependent on local funding</a>.</p>
<h2>Toward a more fair system</h2>
<p>While Brown v. Board declared school segregation itself unconstitutional, other related aspects of segregated schools – particularly the decentralization of school funding – continued unchecked after it. The longer those aspects remained, the more courts accepted them as a neutral aspect of delivering public education. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>An important step in remedying entrenched school funding inequalities is to first recognize that they are rooted in the history of Jim Crow segregation. Another potential step is to return to the more centralized approach of Reconstruction – an <a href="https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/8741/32_102YaleLJ805_1992_1993_.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y">approach</a> that states during their progressive eras have long recognized. And this step makes good constitutional sense, too. After all, <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol111/iss1/1/">every state constitution</a> places the ultimate obligation to fund and deliver public education on <a href="https://casetext.com/case/claremont-school-district-v-governor-3">states</a>, not local governments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181030/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 organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Local control over school funding leads to uneven resources between districts, two legal scholars maintain.Derek W. Black, Professor of Law, University of South CarolinaAxton Crolley, Constitutional Law Fellow, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1780162022-03-03T00:53:50Z2022-03-03T00:53:50ZStill ‘Waiting for Gonski’ – a great book about the sorry tale of school funding<p>You may think “not another article on school funding”. But this important story has to be told and the book, <a href="https://unsw.press/books/waiting-for-gonski/">Waiting For Gonski: how Australia failed its schools</a>, should be read by every parent, economist and Australian committed to “the fair go”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cover of Waiting for Gonski" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449405/original/file-20220302-23-6u0rsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&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="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsw.press/books/waiting-for-gonski/">UNSW Press</a></span>
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<p>The title is apt and who would have thought a book on school funding would be a riveting read? Authors Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor have all the angles covered.</p>
<h2>What went wrong?</h2>
<p>The much-lauded <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-resourcing-board/resources/review-needs-based-funding-requirements-final-report-december-2019">Gonski reforms</a>, recommended ten years ago, have not been effectively enacted. The book provides a clear account of how it all went wrong in “the Gonski we got” and “postmortem” analysis chapters.</p>
<p>Rather than levelling the playing field, it is clear the system has become more unfair. More funding has gone to less needy schools. Government funding to non-government schools grew at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/16/private-school-funding-has-increased-at-five-times-rate-of-public-schools-analysis-shows">five times the rate</a> of funding for government schools over the past decade. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing changes in funding for public, Catholic and independent schools from Commonwealth, states and all governments, fees and other income, and total income." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449423/original/file-20220302-17-7reycb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&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"><a class="source" href="https://saveourschools.com.au/funding/get-gonski-back-on-track/#more-5070">Chart: The Conversation. Data: Analysis of ACARA, National Report on Schooling data by Trevor Cobbold (2021), Save Our schools website</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The review introduced the concept of the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/quality-schools-package/fact-sheets/what-schooling-resource-standard-and-how-does-it-work#:%7E:text=The%20Schooling%20Resource%20Standard%20%28SRS%29%20is%20an%20estimate,for%20Schooling%2C%20led%20by%20Mr.%20David%20Gonski%20AC.">Schooling Resource Standard</a> (SRS). The review panel said this was the funding “needed as the starting point for […] transparent, fair, financially sustainable and educationally effective” resourcing. The SRS uses a base funding amount each student, plus “loadings” for particular school and student needs. </p>
<p>The majority of government schools are yet to be fully funded to the SRS. At the same time, many non-government schools are overfunded, well beyond the standard (and fees sit on top of this government funding).</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Shortfalls and excesses in SRS funding by state and territory, 2018-2023</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing shortfalls and excesses in School Resource Standard (SRS) funding by state and territory, 2018-2023" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=719&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449433/original/file-20220302-17-sn3bo7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=904&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"><a class="source" href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-resourcing-board/resources/review-needs-based-funding-requirements-final-report-december-2019">Source: Review of needs‑based funding requirements: final report, December 2019/DESE</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>A 2019 <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-resourcing-board/resources/review-needs-based-funding-requirements-final-report-december-2019">federal government review</a> of needs-based funding makes it clear government schools’ needs are not being met and the system lacks transparency. New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania committed to reach 75% of SRS funding for government schools beyond 2023. NSW and Tasmania will reach 75% in 2027, Victoria in 2028 and Queensland in 2032. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=P5VfEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT229&lpg=PT229&dq=%22federal+government+has+locked+in+a+model+where+every+private+school+will+get+fully+funded+by+2023,+whereas+very+few+government+schools+will+ever+get+fully+funded%22&source=bl&ots=d8lnkDkl5T&sig=ACfU3U0zwqjkFj8i3I3buUZXjV8RN-b-Cw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjz8aK2oKb2AhVoT2wGHdjLAekQ6AF6BAgaEAM#v=onepage&q=%22federal%20government%20has%20locked%20in%20a%20model%20where%20every%20private%20school%20will%20get%20fully%20funded%20by%202023%2C%20whereas%20very%20few%20government%20schools%20will%20ever%20get%20fully%20funded%22&f=false">quote</a> from the then Grattan Institute school program director, Peter Goss, is instructive: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The federal government has locked in a model where every private school will get fully funded by 2023, whereas very few government schools will ever get fully funded. By 2030 we’re going to be having this same argument and it’s all predictable from now.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Unlevel playing field has a long history</h2>
<p>While many schools are still waiting to receive the Gonski needs-based funding, Greenwell and Bonnor make it clear there was also a sense of waiting in the lead-up to the review and 2011 <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/school-funding/resources/review-funding-schooling-final-report-december-2011">report</a>. </p>
<p>Pre-Gonski history provides important insights, including coverage of mistakes in the original establishment of Australia’s inclusive public education system. The system wasn’t really inclusive and created the first unlevel playing field, with well-resourced free education for most, alongside struggling Catholic schools. This changed after the 1960s, when the private sector successfully lobbied for funding. But, as the authors point out, “one unlevel playing field replaced another”.</p>
<p>The 1973 Karmel report followed, but was criticised because, as Simon Marginson <a href="https://www.ppesydney.net/content/uploads/2020/04/Reassessing-Karmel-results-of-the-1973-education-settlement.pdf">wrote</a> in 1984:</p>
<p>“[The report] did not develop an understanding of the dynamics of the dual system of schooling that operates in Australia […] [and] failed to go to the roots of inequalities in schooling”.</p>
<h2>Gonski also failed on this score</h2>
<p>Bonnor and Greenwell point out this criticism also applies to the Gonski review. Rather than tackle the complexities of the public-private system, Gonski left untouched the issues of school fees and very different school sector obligations, operations and accountabilities. Inequities in school operations, including enrolment policies, were not addressed.</p>
<p>While recommending adequate funding for schools where students had greater needs, the review did not question or seek to resolve why these students concentrated within disadvantaged schools, most of them government schools. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-schools-are-becoming-more-segregated-this-threatens-student-outcomes-155455">segregation of schools has since increased</a>. Both the <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/equity-in-education_9789264073234-en">OECD</a> and <a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/995-an-unfair-start-education-inequality-children.html">UNICEF</a> have identified this as a key weakness in Australian schooling.</p>
<p>Greenwell and Bonnor point to the significance of the review’s focus on the impact of peers on student achievement, in a structure where fees sort and segregate students into different schools on the basis of socio-educational advantage. Bonnor says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The review panel couldn’t, or chose not to, join the dots between this phenomenon and Australia’s increasingly mediocre levels of student achievement.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gonski review panel member Ken Boston now agrees and attributes much of our educational woes to weaknesses in the report and failures of implementation. Noting the model was to be needs-based and sector-blind, he <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/want-to-know-why-our-schools-keep-lagging-the-world-s-best-20220216-p59wtq.html">says</a>: “Quite the opposite has occurred”. </p>
<p>Waiting for Gonski is a riveting, but depressing, account of how that happened. Drawing on interviews with key figures, the authors describe the manoeuvrings to get the funding legislation passed, the distorting of Gonski’s recommendations, the intensity of the activities of the lobby groups, and the eventual sabotage of the remnants of Gonski that managed to get over the line.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="School children in uniform walking across school grounds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449445/original/file-20220302-27-1ko7lu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449445/original/file-20220302-27-1ko7lu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449445/original/file-20220302-27-1ko7lu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449445/original/file-20220302-27-1ko7lu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449445/original/file-20220302-27-1ko7lu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449445/original/file-20220302-27-1ko7lu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449445/original/file-20220302-27-1ko7lu3.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">Since the Gonski review, tens of thousands of students have gone through a school system that failed to meet their educational needs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Students – and Australia – continue to miss out</h2>
<p>The story is complete with a coming-of-age personal drama highlighting the impacts of funding on two young students as they move through their schooling.</p>
<p>It is important to remember that many thousands of children have completed <em>all</em> their schooling in the post-Gonski era, without the funding deemed necessary for the system to be “educationally effective”. The pathways of those lives have missed out on the educational enrichment funding to the Schooling Resource Standard would have brought.</p>
<p>Alongside Waiting for Gonski, a <a href="https://www.cper.edu.au/conferences">Why Money Does Matter</a> conference marked the 10th anniversary with further sobering analysis, available <a href="https://www.cper.edu.au/conferences">here</a>. </p>
<p>Gonski made “needs-based” equity funding part of our vocabulary but not part of our system. It is clear that action to fully implement true needs-based funding is urgently needed. </p>
<p>Waiting for Gonski ends with a call to action. For our education system to thrive nothing short of <a href="https://www.gie.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/Structural%20Failure_final.pdf">substantial structural change</a> will do. </p>
<p>Greenwell and Bonnor also argue public funding brings public obligations, and a public contract is needed, requiring non-government schools to operate with policies comparable to those of government schools. Such an approach would “level the playing field”, which would undoubtedly strengthen Australian education and our economy. Do we have to wait much longer?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Let us do something, while we have the chance! … Let us make the most of it, before it is too late!” <strong>― Samuel Beckett, Waiting For Godot</strong>.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I previously published a report "Structural failure: Why Australia keeps falling short of its educational goals" co-authored by Chris Bonnor, one of the authors of 'Waiting for Gonski'
I am also on the Board of the Centre for Public Education Research that hosted the conference mentioned in this article.</span></em></p>A decade ago, it was hoped the Gonski reforms would level the playing field for Australian students, but the system is now even more unfair. A new book lays out how it all went wrong.Rachel Wilson, Associate Professor in Education, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755262022-01-24T11:01:13Z2022-01-24T11:01:13ZAlbanese pledges $440 million to help schools and children ‘bounce back’ and outlines aspirations for a ‘legacy’<p>As attention turns to pupils’ return to the classroom, Opposition leader Anthony Albanese on Tuesday will promise a Labor government would spend $440 million on better ventilation in schools, building upgrades, and mental health support for children.</p>
<p>The plan is in two parts: a fund to upgrade schools in the age of COVID, worth $238 million and spent by the end of 2023, and $201.5 million to boost student wellbeing, which an ALP government would spend this year. </p>
<p>Albanese will outline the plan in a National Press Club pre-Australia Day address, billed as a scene-setter for election year in which he aims to give an idea of what kind of prime minister he would be. </p>
<p>Scott Morrison will address the club next week.</p>
<p>The start of the school year will see a fresh challenge for dealing with Omicron. NSW and Victoria have plans for the regular testing of children but appeals are being made to parents to be patient given the shortage of rapid antigen tests. </p>
<p>“Parents are worried sick about sending their kids back to school,” Albanese and shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek say in a statement. “Scott Morrison’s delays getting a COVID vaccine for young people means many students will be more exposed than they should be.” </p>
<p>In his speech, extracts of which were released ahead of delivery, Albanese says every school would stand to benefit from Labor’s proposed funding.</p>
<p>“The schools themselves will decide how to use the extra money to best help their students,” he says.</p>
<p>“Part of this funding will be allocated directly to activities that get our children back on track. This could mean more funding for school counsellors and psychologists, and for camps, excursions, sporting and social activities that improve children’s wellbeing.”</p>
<p>Labor would fund a “free, expert-developed, voluntary mental health check tool” that schools could choose to use to help identify children needing extra support.</p>
<p>An ALP government would have the Education Department conduct a review of COVID’s impact on students with disability, so they get the necessary help.</p>
<p>The upgrade plan would cover funding for better ventilation and projects such as more outdoor classrooms, replacing boarded-up windows and doors and buying air purifiers.</p>
<p>Labor’s initiatives would help schools and students “bounce back,” Albanese says. </p>
<p>Albanese says his speech title “Australia’s best days are ahead”, refers to “not just the better days that we’re all hoping for right now, but the best our nation has ever seen”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-a-very-bad-start-to-2022-for-morrison-but-can-albanese-win-175244">Politics with Michelle Grattan: A very bad start to 2022 for Morrison, but can Albanese win?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Referring to Morrison’s statements we must “push through” the Omicron wave, Albanese says “‘pushing through’ this pandemic is not enough. We need to learn from it, we need to use what the last two years have taught us to build a better future”.</p>
<p>Australians have been “magnificent” in the pandemic, he says. If elected PM, he would see it as his fundamental responsibility to repay the sacrifices, reward the efforts, and “to prove worthy of the generosity and bravery of the Australian people”.</p>
<p>This would mean building on the lessons of the pandemic, he says. These include the importance of a strong public health system; the role of insecure work in undermining many families’ confidence; the need for Australia to be more self-sufficient; the importance of a high quality NBN and affordable childcare; and the consequences of stripping TAFE and training for skills gaps and worker shortages.</p>
<p>“In a recent profile, when asked to reflect on his time in office, Scott Morrison suggested he is not interested in leaving a legacy. For him, having no legacy is a conscious choice.</p>
<p>"If given the opportunity, I will make a different choice.
I want a better future.</p>
<p>"And if I’m successful, that future will be clear to Australians by the end of Labor’s first term,” Albanese says.</p>
<p>“An Australia with rising living standards across the board, lifted by more secure work, better wages, stronger Medicare and cheaper childcare.</p>
<p>"An Australia with more secure jobs in both existing and new industries – industries that will be reaping the benefits of cheap, renewable energy created in abundance here at home.</p>
<p>"An Australia that is secure in our place in the world, standing up for Australian democratic values and for human rights on the global stage.</p>
<p>"An inclusive society, where gender, race or religion are no indication of a person’s opportunities or possibilities.</p>
<p>"An Australia reconciled with ourselves and with our history, and with a constitutionally recognised First Nations’ Voice to Parliament.</p>
<p>"The desire to deliver that legacy for Australians, with the lessons of this moment at its core, will be a driving force of a Labor government.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan 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>Anthony Albanese on Tuesday will promise $440 million on better ventilation in schools, building upgrades, and mental health support for children as pupils get ready to return to schoolMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1685482021-11-01T12:27:19Z2021-11-01T12:27:19ZCOVID-19 threatens the already shaky status of arts education in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427842/original/file-20211021-19-mpwsjr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5182%2C3680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As more normalcy returns to schools, will arts education programs rebound?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/giani-clarke-a-senior-at-wilson-high-school-during-her-news-photo/1306725559">Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents can watch their kids draw and paint at home or perform in school music concerts and dance recitals. But they may not know how their school arts program compares with others around the country.</p>
<p>As a music education professor and a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hKa909sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researcher who studies arts education policies</a>, I know that access to and the quality of arts programs vary greatly among states, districts and even schools within the same district.</p>
<p>Additionally, I see that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2021.1931599">disruptions from the pandemic</a> are threatening the already <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2010.490776">tenuous status</a> of the arts in public schools.</p>
<h2>Who gets to study art and music?</h2>
<p>Music education first made its way into American public schools in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40318321">Boston in the 1830s</a>. It started with singing instruction, with instrumental music to follow later in the century. Today, arts programs in K-12 schools include visual arts, music, theater, dance and multimedia or design.</p>
<p>A congressionally mandated <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2011078">study from 2011</a> offers a snapshot of what’s available to kids. Back then, 94% of public elementary schools reported that they offered music instruction, and 83% offered visual arts. Theater (4%) and dance (3%) were much less common.</p>
<p>Data also shows that, at least at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2020.1773365">high school level</a>, larger schools and traditional public schools offer more arts courses than do smaller schools and private or charter schools.</p>
<p>But the more locally one looks, the more disparities emerge. For example, only <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012014rev.pdf">22% of high schools</a> with high concentrations of poverty offer five or more visual arts courses, compared with 56% of high schools with low concentrations of poverty. Some evidence suggests schools with mostly white students offer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2014.914389">significantly more music offerings</a> than schools in the same metropolitan area that serve mostly students of color.</p>
<p>Disparities also exist in terms of how qualified arts teachers are in different schools. In Utah, for example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2014.944967">fewer than 10%</a> of elementary school students receive music instruction from certified specialists. And in my own analysis of music education in Michigan in 2017-2018, I found only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429421989961">two-thirds of urban schools</a> had certified music teachers, compared with almost 90% of suburban schools.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy wearing a blue shirt and face mask paints a piece of wood outside as a man wearing a pink shirt and orange baseball cap offers direction" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428829/original/file-20211027-21-1gotzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428829/original/file-20211027-21-1gotzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428829/original/file-20211027-21-1gotzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428829/original/file-20211027-21-1gotzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428829/original/file-20211027-21-1gotzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428829/original/file-20211027-21-1gotzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428829/original/file-20211027-21-1gotzgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visual arts and music classes are common in public elementary schools, while theater and dance are rare.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tim-gibson-center-gives-direction-to-a-4th-grader-working-news-photo/1279154819">Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cuts to instruction</h2>
<p>These findings offer clues to how the arts are currently positioned in U.S. schools. </p>
<p>Although the arts were considered a core subject in the 2001 federal <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/1">No Child Left Behind Act</a>, they were not factored into annual testing or related sanctions against underperforming schools. As a result, instructional time in the arts was <a href="https://arteducators-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/448/bf6db6ff-3e19-4642-8f33-93415c74810b.pdf?1452927747">cut back</a>. </p>
<p>In two studies from 2007 to 2008, schools indicated that they had cut an average of <a href="https://www.ewa.org/report/choices-changes-and-challenges-curriculum-and-instruction-nclb-era">145 minutes per week</a> across the nontested subjects, lunch and recess. Where visual art and music were cut back, it was for an average of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3200/AEPR.109.6.23-28">57 minutes per week</a>.</p>
<p>Because states determine curricular requirements and other policies, the landscape varies. <a href="https://c0arw235.caspio.com/dp/b7f9300062f044d142eb469b83ba?state=Arkansas">Arkansas</a>, for example, requires 40 minutes of elementary school art and music per week, while <a href="https://c0arw235.caspio.com/dp/b7f9300062f044d142eb469b83ba?state=Michigan">Michigan</a> has no requirement for either. Only <a href="https://www.ecs.org/artscan-at-a-glance/">32 states</a> consider the arts a core subject.</p>
<p>Furthermore, a school superintendent’s priorities may be the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429412474313">deciding factor</a> in whether a school district’s arts education is robust or merely an afterthought. In a 2017 study I did on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429417739855">arts education in Lansing, Michigan</a>, a midsized school district that had cut staff to fill a budgetary gap, I found elementary schools offered a single music and art class once every eight weeks.</p>
<h2>Benefits of arts education</h2>
<p>Arts education has been associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-381460-9.00012-2">increased cognitive ability</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000376">academic achievement</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264180789-en">creative thinking</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2015.1086915">school engagement</a> and so-called “soft skills” like <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED598203">compassion for others</a>. However, many of these studies are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632910109600008">correlational rather than causal</a>. It may be that more advanced and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022429413485601">more privileged</a> students pursued arts education in the first place. </p>
<p>Still, research on the benefits of the arts has spurred many schools to invest in <a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/articles-and-how-tos/articles/collections/arts-integration-resources/what-is-arts-integration/">arts integration</a>. This approach marries arts content with traditional academic subjects. For example, students might <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420902712">learn history though theater performances</a>. Other policies aim to use <a href="http://turnaroundarts.kennedy-center.org/">arts integration and artist residencies</a> to improve test scores, attendance, graduation rates and other metrics.</p>
<p>Some arts education advocates have <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3399646">pushed back</a> with a rallying cry of “art for art’s sake.” They worry that if arts education is always justified by its impact on math and reading achievement, it may be viewed as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20299381">nice but not necessary</a>.</p>
<p>More recently, arts education proponents talk about access to a well-rounded, rich curriculum as an <a href="https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/legislation-policy/naappd/arts-facts-access-to-arts-education-in-not-equitable-2017">equity issue</a>. This has led large districts in <a href="https://www.ingenuity-inc.org/">Chicago</a>, <a href="https://www.creativeadvantageseattle.org/">Seattle</a>, <a href="https://www.edvestors.org/bps-arts-expansion/">Boston</a> and <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Study/88827">Houston</a> to slowly chip away at disparities in arts education.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="High school students sing in individual green tents during choir class" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427845/original/file-20211021-23-1r8arvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427845/original/file-20211021-23-1r8arvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427845/original/file-20211021-23-1r8arvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427845/original/file-20211021-23-1r8arvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427845/original/file-20211021-23-1r8arvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427845/original/file-20211021-23-1r8arvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427845/original/file-20211021-23-1r8arvr.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">COVID-19 changed how students participate in arts classes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/choir-director-dawn-mccormick-leads-students-keyonna-page-news-photo/1231401397">David Ryder/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>COVID-19 and arts education</h2>
<p>Hands-on arts classes made for an awkward fit with remote learning when schools suspended in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2021.1931597">Many music teachers reported</a> that they were told not to hold live virtual classes with students, and that their students did not engage much with their assignments.</p>
<p>Yet when schools returned to in-person instruction, frustrations and confusion continued to abound. After a community choir rehearsal in Washington state turned into a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/us/coronavirus-washington-choir-outbreak-trnd/index.html">superspreader event</a>, singing and playing wind instruments <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/will-coronavirus-silence-school-bands-and-choirs/2020/08">were banned</a> in many schools. In visual arts classes, the sharing of materials was an issue. And across schools, arts teachers were limited by social distancing restrictions and guidelines around keeping groups of students separated. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Preliminary results of a survey I’m conducting suggest that high school music class enrollment has suffered during the pandemic. This may be as a result of students <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-trends-in-public-school-enrollment-due-to-covid-19-168911">exiting the public school system</a> or of safety concerns regarding singing and performing in large groups.</p>
<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>As more normalcy returns to schools, will arts education programs rebound? Two forces may help determine the answer.</p>
<p>On one hand, the concern over so-called <a href="https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/central/blog/mitigating-learning-loss.asp">learning loss</a> is pushing school districts to invest in extra tutoring and coaching in traditionally tested subjects like math and English language arts. As in the aftermath of No Child Left Behind, this could crowd out instructional time for the arts.</p>
<p>However, the pandemic has also drawn more attention to <a href="https://theconversation.com/students-are-returning-to-school-with-anxiety-grief-and-gaps-in-social-skills-will-there-be-enough-school-mental-health-resources-165279">mental health and student wellness</a>. Arts classrooms may provide a <a href="https://artsedsel.org">natural place</a> for <a href="https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/">social and emotional learning</a> because of the focus on collaboration, goal-setting and emotional expression. </p>
<p>There are also government and nonprofit efforts to <a href="https://www.amacad.org/publication/case-for-arts-education">make arts education more consistent</a> across the country. Proposed legislation like the <a href="https://oregonculture.org/2021/04/encouraging-words-from-congresswoman-bonamici/">Arts Education for All Act</a> would expand arts education in K-12 public schools and require more data reporting on arts achievement at the state and federal levels.</p>
<p>For now, access to school arts education remains unequal in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic could help focus attention on these inequities and spur solutions, or it could further complicate the perennially shaky footing of the arts in schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan D. Shaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even before the pandemic, access to arts programs and qualified instructors varied greatly among schools and districts.Ryan D. Shaw, Assistant Professor of Music Education, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1645462021-09-16T12:11:58Z2021-09-16T12:11:58ZHow reparations can be paid through school finance reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421395/original/file-20210915-23-k7ab9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5420%2C3753&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Schools in predominantly Black communities receive less funding, even though Black homeowners pay higher tax rates.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-nine-year-old-african-american-student-linda-brown-news-photo/454410523?adppopup=true">Carl Iwasaki/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>White public schools have <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">always gotten more money</a> than Black public schools. These funding disparities go back to the so-called “<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/133243/men-created-separate-equal">separate but equal</a>” era – which was enshrined into the nation’s laws by the Supreme Court’s 1896 decision in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/163us537">Plessy v. Ferguson</a>.</p>
<p>The disparities have persisted even after <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board of Education</a>, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that ordered the desegregation of America’s public schools.</p>
<p>Since Black schools get less funding even though <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">Black homeowners pay higher property taxes</a> than their white counterparts, we think <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">reparations are due</a> – and they can be paid by reforming the ways Black homeowners are taxed and schools in Black communities are funded.</p>
<p>We make this argument as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0NQWga8AAAAJ&hl=en">school finance</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=z-bISjgAAAAJ&hl=en">education law</a> scholars who have studied racial inequality in education for decades. We propose a four-part reparations plan to address racial inequalities in education. The plan deals with: 1) local property taxes, 2) school revenues, 3) targeting funding to close gaps in student outcomes, and 4) federal monitoring.</p>
<h2>1. Tax rebates to Black homeowners</h2>
<p>A big reason for racial funding disparities is housing segregation. This separation has led to vast <a href="http://btbcoalition.org/index%20page%20images/2018.11_Brookings-Metro_Devaluation-Assets-Black-Neighborhoods_final.pdf">differences in housing values</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz002">wealth</a> that families have been able to accumulate. This in turn <a href="https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai21-363">affects how much funding can be raised</a> through property taxes for local public schools.</p>
<p>In Connecticut, for example, Black-owned homes are valued on average at about <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">$250,000, versus over $420,000 for white-owned homes</a>. Even for homes in the same metro areas within Connecticut with the same number of bedrooms, the <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">difference is $173,000</a>. </p>
<p>Since Black home values overall are lower, higher tax rates are <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">often adopted</a> to generate more local tax revenue. This comes in the form of what we refer to as a “Black Tax.” In Connecticut, the average Black homeowner pays a Black Tax of just over 0.6% in higher property taxes. On a $250,000 home, that <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">amounts to $1,575 per year</a>. But even with higher tax rates, Black communities do not raise the same amount of property tax revenue to fund public schools as white communities in the same state or metropolitan area. Tax rates required to fully close these gaps would simply be too high. In a 2021 article, we documented <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">similar disparities in other states</a>, including Maryland and Virginia.</p>
<p>We recommend direct rebates to Black homeowners in previously redlined or otherwise segregated communities in the amount calculated to cover the Black Tax. For example, the Black Tax in Bridgeport, Connecticut is just over 0.5%. For a home valued at $340,000, the annual rebate amount would be <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">just over $1,800</a>. These rebates would put money in the hands of Black homeowners, who would then have the option to either spend more on their local public schools or increase their personal savings. Either way, we believe they are owed this compensation, including possible cumulative compensation for past overpayment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black male teenager studies at a library while listening to music through his earphones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421435/original/file-20210915-20-nkgkjd.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">Black school districts have less taxable wealth compared to white school districts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenage-boy-studying-in-school-library-royalty-free-image/88752144?adppopup=true">Hill Street Studios/DigitalVistion via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Closing racial gaps in school district revenues</h2>
<p>State general aid programs, which are intended to make sure all schools get equitable funding, <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">routinely fall short</a>.</p>
<p>In Connecticut, the average state general aid per Black child is <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">$2,756</a> more than the average state general aid per white child. This is because districts serving Black children tend to have less of their own taxable wealth. That is, districts serving more Black children do receive more state general aid than districts serving more white children, but not enough to close the gap <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">$4,295</a> in local revenue raised. We calculated that the remaining gap is <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol27/iss2/7/">$1,574 per pupil</a>. Additional state aid to school districts in Black communities could close this gap.</p>
<h2>3. Change how race factors into school aid formulas</h2>
<p><a href="https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https://www.shankerinstitute.org/sites/default/files/moneymatters_edition2.pdf">Money matters</a> for improving schools and <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/2017/6/6/21102760/devos-says-school-spending-and-student-outcomes-aren-t-related-but-recent-research-suggests-otherwis">improving student outcomes</a> – from <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w25368/w25368.pdf">test scores to graduation rates and college attendance</a>. School finance reforms have <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w29177#fromrss">proved especially beneficial to Black students</a>. Research is <a href="https://works.bepress.com/c_kirabo_jackson/38/">increasingly clear</a> in this regard. Equitable and adequate financing of public school systems is a necessary condition for ensuring children equal opportunity to succeed.</p>
<p>State school finance formulas <a href="https://carsey.unh.edu/sites/default/files/media/2020/06/20-11882_7._primer_policyscan_v3.pdf">include weights</a> – or cost adjustments – for things like how many children live in poverty or how many children have disabilities. The idea is that such children require more money to educate. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2011.539957">evidence</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40704360">related studies</a> show that, because of governmental policies that created <a href="http://btbcoalition.org/index%20page%20images/2018.11_Brookings-Metro_Devaluation-Assets-Black-Neighborhoods_final.pdf">racial isolation and the economic disadvantage</a> that accompanies it, school and district racial composition is an important factor to include in state school finance formulas. But <a href="https://carsey.unh.edu/sites/default/files/media/2020/06/20-11882_7._primer_policyscan_v3.pdf">no state currently does this</a>. </p>
<h2>4. Eliminate racism in school finance formulas</h2>
<p>Some state aid programs <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535555.pdf">exacerbate</a> racial disparities, and worse, some are built on the systemic <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/428886">racist policies that created them</a>.</p>
<p>Kansas, like many states, imposes strict <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0275-1100.2004.00344.x">revenue limits, or caps</a>, on revenue that can be raised locally in order to maintain equity. But a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40704338">2005 provision</a> added to their school funding formula raised the cap for 16 districts with higher average housing values, <a href="https://www.thepitchkc.com/funny-math/">based on the claim</a> that those districts needed to pay teachers more to live in their districts. But this specific provision almost uniformly applied to predominantly white districts where most neighborhoods had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.00268">racially restrictive covenants in earlier decades</a>.</p>
<p>The provision excluded neighboring districts where homes had been devalued by redlining because they were inhabited by Black residents. These neighboring districts also presently use their <a href="https://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=8rP50roDAoQ%3d&tabid=398&portalid=0&mid=2427">maximum taxing authority</a>.</p>
<p>We recommend federal audits of state school finance systems to identify features of those systems that exacerbate racial disparities and may in fact be built on systemic racial discrimination. Since states have thus far been <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/reports/2012/09/19/38189/the-stealth-inequities-of-school-funding/">unwilling</a> to lead these initiatives themselves, we believe they need <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-resourcecomp-201410.pdf">federal encouragement</a>.</p>
<p>The funding adjustment on high-priced houses in Kansas provides one example, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/428886">there are others</a>, including state aid programs designed to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124507304126">reduce local property tax rates</a> in affluent suburban communities. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164546/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 organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A school finance expert and an education law scholar make the case for why reparations should be paid to African Americans by changing the way schools are funded.Preston Green III, John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education, University of ConnecticutBruce Baker, Professor of Education, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1659472021-08-24T18:57:03Z2021-08-24T18:57:03ZCOVID-19 has spurred investments in air filtration for K-12 schools – but these technologies aren’t an instant fix<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417256/original/file-20210820-13-1vqpfu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-cost air-ventilation systems have been installed in many classrooms across the U.S. to help reduce COVID-19 transmission.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/small-children-with-face-mask-back-to-school-after-royalty-free-image/1268258062?adppopup=true">Halfpoint Images/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has brought increased attention to indoor air quality and the effect that ventilation has on reducing disease transmission in indoor spaces. A <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/schools/">recent infrastructure survey</a> reported that of the nearly 100,000 operating public school buildings across the U.S., more than a third have an immediate need for upgrades to the ventilation systems that help control indoor air quality and the spread of “aerosols.”</p>
<p>Aerosol is the term used to describe the millions of microscopic particles that float in air – both indoors and out. People constantly inhale and exhale aerosols, some of which include allergens, particles from automobile exhaust, wildfire ash and microbes. </p>
<p>Our University of Colorado <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BpJEifoAAAAJ&hl=en">environmental engineering team</a> has been studying the microbiological components of indoor air, called “bioaerosols”, for more than 25 years. We have surveyed the ventilation systems of hundreds of <a href="https://co.chalkbeat.org/2021/2/1/22256894/school-districts-exploring-new-ways-reduce-covid-through-air">K-12 classrooms</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-015-0132-3">health care facilities</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2021/indoor-air-quality-safety-experiment/">and restaurants</a>. And we have provided facilities managers with affordable plans to improve indoor air quality.</p>
<p>Our own work <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12403">as well as others’</a> has found that many classrooms are unfortunately poorly ventilated, and that better ventilation can reduce student absences due to illness – both during a pandemic and more normal times.</p>
<p>After surveying the installation of air filtration systems over the past year, we found that they can significantly improve air quality in classrooms by lowering aerosol levels, which in turn lowers COVID-19 transmission risk. But effective installation is key.</p>
<h2>A new age of filtration</h2>
<p>As the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-use-ventilation-and-air-filtration-to-prevent-the-spread-of-coronavirus-indoors-143732">pandemic continues to highlight</a> the need for better ventilation and indoor air quality, <a href="https://schools.forhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2020/06/Harvard-Healthy-Buildings-Program-Schools-For-Health-Reopening-Covid19-June2020.pdf">many academic institutions</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/ventilation.html">government agencies</a>, nongovernmental organizations and <a href="https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/resources">professional building science societies</a> have been promoting better building-management practices to improve school ventilation. </p>
<p>Some building scientists have called for bringing the ventilation conditions in schools up to the levels prescribed for medical clinics. Unfortunately, the infrastructure investments required for that level of upgrade are well out of practical reach for many public buildings: Between 2008 and 2017 alone, <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/schools/">state capital funding for schools</a> was cut by $20 billion, or 31%. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/schools/">absence of funding</a> for major building upgrades, simple in-room filtration technologies have been installed in some schools to improve ventilation in classrooms where many students spend their days in close quarters. However, these filters have only been deployed in a small fraction of public schools across the country.</p>
<p>This technology, called high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration, was born in the aerospace industry more than 50 years ago. HEPA filtration has been proved to efficiently remove microscopic airborne particles – including respiratory viruses – from air in higher occupancy spaces like classrooms. </p>
<p>Over the past few years, a new generation of HEPA filters have emerged from the U.S. commercial sector. These filters are more compatible with educational settings and less intrusive than their research-grade counterparts that are commonly used in the aerospace and pharmaceutical sectors, where “clean rooms” are needed. These latest models include improvements like multidirectional intake, reduced noise, lower power requirements, better durability and relatively small footprints. </p>
<p>HEPA filters have also become more widely used over the past couple of decades in homes in response to the recognition of <a href="https://www.prb.org/resources/childhood-asthma-a-growing-american-epidemic/">rising asthma rates among children</a>. But until the COVID-19 pandemic, they were rarely used in public school settings. </p>
<h2>Bringing fresher air to classrooms</h2>
<p>Over the 2021 spring academic semester, our team installed hundreds of new HEPA filters in public elementary classrooms in Denver, Colorado, the largest metropolitan school district in the Mountain West. These upgrades were possible due to a recent <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/01/11/cu-denver-schools-air-filter/">industry-university cooperative</a> effort between the University of Colorado, the Intel foundation and the Carrier Corporation, a multinational ventilation equipment company. Together, these organizations contributed more than $500,000 for large-scale ventilation assessments, HEPA filter installations and other air quality improvements for Denver-area schools.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417271/original/file-20210820-25-11rj122.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">University of Colorado, Boulder, professor Mark Hernandez, engineering student Ricardo Reyes and architecture student Halle Sago take microbial counts on a classroom desk in Boulder in spring 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glenn Asakawa/CU Boulder</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A yet-unpublished poll of teachers in many of those classrooms overwhelmingly reported that this new generation of HEPA filters were welcome and easy to accommodate in their classrooms. </p>
<p>But like all engineering solutions, air filter effectiveness depends on proper installation. Our team’s field studies demonstrate that a simple “plug-and-play” approach will not address the complicated reality of aerosol exposures in densely occupied classrooms. In many situations, we have found HEPA filters that were undersized and placed inappropriately – such as facing a wall or in a remote corner – and sometimes not even turned on. </p>
<p>Networks of HEPA filters need to be thoughtfully installed, and the process must take into consideration other factors such as existing ventilation system performance, ceiling height, desk layouts and the presence or absence of ceiling fans. HEPA filters can only work up to their full potential if schools have the right number of them, they are the appropriate size and are placed in optimal positions. </p>
<p>The best HEPA filter installations consider details like student seating charts, high traffic areas and other variables based on student behaviors. Fortunately, building facility managers and custodial staff can be trained, with modest time investment, to install, operate and maintain HEPA filters in classrooms, with minimal distraction to teachers. </p>
<h2>Air quality improvements are an investment in health and education</h2>
<p>A 2020 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23744731.2020.1794499">review on indoor air quality strategies </a> estimates that an individual HEPA filter, sized for elementary school classrooms with average energy use, costs about $361. This is consistent with our team’s experience in the Denver Public Schools system, where we typically installed at least two units per classroom at a cost of less than $800 per room. We estimate that this is roughly equal to the cost of one extra textbook per student over an academic year. In our opinion, that is well worth the potential improvement in indoor air quality in classrooms.</p>
<p>In-room HEPA filtration is a long-term investment that supplements existing ventilation systems. And though COVID-19 was the impetus for the installation of many HEPA filters, they are effective for far more than just reducing exposures to airborne viruses. Well-maintained and properly functioning filtration systems also reduce exposure to wildfire ash that can penetrate buildings, as well as allergens and other unwanted particles like automobile exhaust, tire detritus and construction dust. </p>
<p>But even the best indoor HEPA filtration cannot guarantee protection from airborne respiratory threats in schools. HEPA filters are effective only as part of an integrated approach. Ultimately, masks, distancing and reducing the number of students packed into tight spaces will determine how well students are protected from COVID-19.</p>
<p>HEPA filters are the modern analogy of “seat-belts” for indoor air quality in the age of COVID-19. If fitted correctly, they can only help lower the exposures to COVID-19 and other aerosols that students experience during their school days. </p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Hernandez receives funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, as well as a host of public and private companies and philanthropic organizations supporting air quality research in our built environment, including the Reckitt company, the Clorox company, the Intel Foundation, and the Ryan Innovation Group.</span></em></p>Air-ventilation upgrades have been badly needed in U.S. classrooms since long before the pandemic. Low-tech filtration systems that cost about the same as a textbook per student can make a big difference.Mark Thomas Hernandez, S. J. Archuleta Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1624692021-06-21T12:17:10Z2021-06-21T12:17:10Z4 ways to get more Black and Latino teachers in K-12 public schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405738/original/file-20210610-25-b572hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4722%2C3226&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More than half of U.S. public school students are children of color, while most of their teachers are white.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bryant-elementary-school-kindergarten-teacher-chris-johnson-news-photo/1311697476">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Black children are more likely to <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475839654/Ethnic-Matching-Academic-Success-of-Students-of-Color">score higher on standardized tests</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w25254">finish high school and want to attend college</a>, and less likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373717693109">be suspended</a>, if they have a Black teacher. Similarly, studies show that Latino students who have a Latino teacher are more likely to want to take <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0162353216686217">advanced coursework</a>.</p>
<p>This data reflects earlier research on Black <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543070004485">and Latino teachers</a> and the positive social and emotional experiences they create for their students. </p>
<p>Education historian <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312038004751">Vanessa Siddle Walker writes</a> about how, even before the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka">Brown v. Board of Education</a> school desegregation decision in 1954, Black teachers and principals provided their students with tools and a framework to navigate a society that was anti-Black. And renowned education researcher <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Dreamkeepers%3A+Successful+Teachers+of+African+American+Children%2C+2nd+Edition-p-9781118622988">Gloria Ladson-Billings explains</a> Black teachers’ capacity to draw on their own experiences as Black people in the U.S. and incorporate their Black students’ cultural experiences into the classroom.</p>
<p>Given the added value of teachers of color, a pressing problem remains: There is a considerable demographic mismatch between teachers and students of color in the U.S. While teachers of color represent <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/SpotlightTeacherDemo.asp">21% of public school educators</a>, students of color account for more than <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cge">52% of public school students</a>.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CGPe6PEAAAAJ&hl=en">education researcher</a>, I study the experiences of teachers of color. Here are four ways to get more teachers from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds in K-12 classrooms.</p>
<h2>1. Focus on retention</h2>
<p>Policymakers, school principals and philanthropies have spent a great deal of resources on <a href="https://woodrow.org/news/ww-rbf-2015/">recruiting teachers of color</a>. And those efforts have paid off. <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2016/2016876.pdf">More Black and Latino teachers</a> are entering the teacher workforce. </p>
<p>The story now is one of retention.</p>
<p>Teachers of color leave the profession and move to other schools at a <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/sites/default/files/product-files/Teacher_Turnover_REPORT.pdf">higher rate</a> than their white peers. An <a href="https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/ae_fall2016asi.pdf">analysis of nine school districts</a> found that Black teachers in particular have higher turnover rates than their white and Latino peers. For example, the number of Black teachers in Chicago Public Schools <a href="https://www.shankerinstitute.org/resource/teacherdiversity">decreased by 39%</a> between 2002 and 2011, compared to a 3% decrease in white teachers and a 6% increase in Latino teachers during the same period. </p>
<h2>2. Improve leadership, work conditions</h2>
<p>Historically, <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1056722">researchers believed</a> that teachers in urban schools that predominantly serve children of color left their schools because they did not want to work with those students. But teachers don’t leave their students; teachers leave their principals. </p>
<p>Principals create the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1268449">working conditions that lead to turnover</a> by not supporting teachers or providing the resources they need to work with their students.</p>
<p>To ensure that principals instead create conditions that help teachers of color thrive, they need high-quality preparation. This preparation should include a focus on how to support new teachers as well as work collegially with students, caregivers and teachers.</p>
<p>Model programs that continue to do this work are <a href="https://www.leadershipacademy.org">The Leadership Academy</a> and the <a href="https://gse.berkeley.edu/academics/professional-programs/principal-leadership-institute">Principal Leadership Institute</a> at University of California, Berkeley. </p>
<h2>3. Fund schools equitably</h2>
<p>To retain teachers of color, districts have to improve the working conditions in their schools. One way to do this is to fund schools more equitably. </p>
<p>Some states, <a href="https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/california-way-equitable-excellent-education-system-brief">like California</a>, have a more progressive, equitable funding formula. That means schools that have a significant number of students who are unhoused, adopted, qualify for free or reduced lunch, or speak English as a second language get more money and resources. </p>
<p>Other states, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2018-02-27/in-most-states-poorest-school-districts-get-less-funding">like New York and Illinois</a>, which are home to some of our country’s largest public school districts, have more regressive funding formulas. Since public schools are primarily funded by local property taxes, students who live in high-income communities across New York State, for example, attend <a href="https://newyork.edtrust.org/press-release/new-york-ranks-near-bottom-states-new-analysis-school-funding-disparities/">more well-resourced schools</a> than children living in low-income communities. <a href="http://nyser.org">Legal efforts</a> to dismantle this separate and unequal funding system are ongoing. </p>
<h2>4. Redesign teacher training</h2>
<p>The U.S. has a wide variety of teacher preparation programs. There’s no common framework for thinking about how to prepare people to become teachers.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in states like California and Texas, after two months of preparation a new teacher can teach children in historically marginalized communities. Given where these teachers are placed, it is clear that school districts, like Oakland Public Schools, <a href="https://www.teachforamerica.org/where-we-work/bay-area/our-work">will hire those new educators</a>.</p>
<p>Placing the most inexperienced teachers in schools with the most challenging working conditions <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3497042">increases turnover</a>. </p>
<p>What stands in the way of getting more Black and Latino teachers in classrooms is not a clear understanding of the problem, but the courage to act on what we already know. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162469/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Travis Bristol does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teacher turnover is higher among Black and Latino teachers than white teachers. An education policy expert explains what schools can do to reverse the trend.Travis Bristol, Assistant Professor of Education, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1586072021-04-28T12:14:10Z2021-04-28T12:14:10ZWind farms bring windfalls for rural schools, but school finance laws limit how money is spent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397398/original/file-20210427-17-o4pal0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C13%2C4467%2C3360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Texas has collected and spent more money on wind energy than any other state. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/daxis/34747221193/">Daxis/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the website for the local school district in Blackwell – a town of just over 300 people in rural Texas – school Superintendent Abe Gott says: “<a href="https://www.blackwellhornets.org/about/superintendents_message.jsp">We believe that no matter your dreams, you can achieve them from Blackwell, Texas.</a>”</p>
<p>To back that up, the Blackwell Consolidated Independent School District provides a <a href="https://www.blackwellhornets.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=82661&type=d&pREC_ID=288568">postsecondary scholarship of up to US$36,000</a> for graduates from the district’s single high school. So far 140 students have benefited from scholarships, according to Gott. </p>
<p>The money that makes this possible came from a $35 million deal the school district brokered with a wind farm company in 2005, part of the <a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/nolan_county_case_study_070908_0.pdf">massive growth of that sector</a> in Nolan County and Texas.</p>
<p>The spread of wind energy in rural America has been a financial boon to school districts such as the one in Blackwell. However, because of the complexity of how schools are financed, <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/school-district-revenue-shocks">the impact on student achievement is limited</a>, according to a new study that we conducted as researchers in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1S2bLkcAAAAJ&hl=en">public finance</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=71IQR0IAAAAJ">education economics</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=IMWAynMAAAAJ">energy policy</a>.</p>
<h2>Windfall of wind taxes</h2>
<p>Nolan County – one of three counties served by the school district – is home to <a href="https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/uswtdb/viewer/#10.17/32.2543/-100.3605">1,371 wind turbines</a> that generate a maximum of 2,097 megawatts, or enough to power half a million Texas homes per year. That includes the 585-megawatt <a href="https://www.duke-energy.com/our-company/about-us/businesses/renewable-energy/wind-energy/sweetwater-windpower">Sweetwater Wind Farm</a> and the 735-megawatt <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_Hollow_Wind_Energy_Center">Horse Hollow project</a>, which was the largest in the world when it came online in 2006.</p>
<p>Over the past 25 years wind energy has blossomed in the United States, rising from less than 2 gigawatts of capacity in 1995 to <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/wind-technologies-market-report/">over 110 GW last year</a>, enough to meet more than 7% of the entire nation’s electricity supply. It provides more than 10% of supply in 14 states, and more than 40% in two of those states — Iowa and Kansas.</p>
<p>By 2020, there were over 1,600 commercial wind installations made up of almost <a href="https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/57bdfd8fe4b03fd6b7df5ff9">68,000 individual turbines</a>. The industry is continuing to grow rapidly, with <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/news/halfway-zero-progress-towards-carbon-free">another 200 gigawatts</a> of projects applying for grid connections as of the end of 2020.</p>
<p>With all this rural development come property tax revenues. Wind projects paid an estimated <a href="https://cleanpower.org/news/wind-powers-america-annual-report/">$1.6 billion in property tax revenues</a> to states and local jurisdictions in 2019.</p>
<p>That is no doubt welcome revenue for school districts in rural areas, which sometimes <a href="https://ednote.ecs.org/how-states-allocate-funding-for-rural-schools/">struggle to generate local tax revenue</a>. But as researchers we wanted to know: How are school districts using wind farm revenues? And is this money helping boost student achievement?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="High school students and their teacher both wear masks in a classroom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397163/original/file-20210426-19-1g8ktu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397163/original/file-20210426-19-1g8ktu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397163/original/file-20210426-19-1g8ktu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397163/original/file-20210426-19-1g8ktu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397163/original/file-20210426-19-1g8ktu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397163/original/file-20210426-19-1g8ktu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397163/original/file-20210426-19-1g8ktu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Revenue from wind turbines can allow for schools to hire more teachers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/high-school-teacher-and-students-in-classroom-royalty-free-image/1264961021?adppopup=true">RichLegg/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To find out, we collected data on new U.S. wind installations from 1995 through 2017 and tax revenue trends in school districts. We then checked to see if new wind farms led to significant changes in school budgets and how school districts spent their money, such as on things like new buildings, hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes, or boosting teacher salaries.</p>
<p>We found that <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/publications/school-district-revenue-shocks">wind energy installations led to large increases in local revenues to school districts</a>. Schools dramatically increased spending on capital outlays, such as buildings and equipment, but made only modest increases to their operating budgets, like hiring more teachers to reduce class size. </p>
<h2>When priorities and policies collide</h2>
<p>Numerous studies have shown that smaller class sizes result in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-of-a-difference-does-the-number-of-kids-in-a-classroom-make-125703">better student achievement</a>. So why are districts putting new tax revenues into capital spending rather than class size reduction?</p>
<p>We think it is due to state school finance formulas and state- and county-level tax laws, and the incentives they provide to school administrators.</p>
<p>As wind grew it expanded from only 16 school districts in 1995 to 900 districts <a href="https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/sites/default/files/brunner_hoen_hyman_2_3_21_working_paper.pdf">spread across 38 states</a> in 2016. Leading the pack are rural areas of the West, the Midwest and Texas.</p>
<p>The amount of tax revenue a school district gets from a wind energy installation depends on state and local laws and how those laws interact with state school finance formulas. </p>
<p>States use a wide variety of approaches to tax wind farms, ranging from normal property tax treatment to full exemptions. Sometimes wind farms make “payments in lieu of taxes,” known as PILOTs.</p>
<p>Kansas, for example, exempts wind projects from property taxes for the first 10 years. Some wind companies make PILOT payments to hosting counties, but individual school districts are often left out of those deals. Wyoming has a centralized system of school finance, so any revenue generated from wind projects is captured entirely by the state and redistributed to schools following a formula.</p>
<p>Texas, the <a href="https://emp.lbl.gov/wind-energy-growth">No. 1 wind energy state</a>, has a complicated system of local taxation of wind farms. Because of the state’s school finance system, much of the additional property tax revenue generated by wind installations can be captured by the state. </p>
<p>Texas uses a formula to take money from school districts with high property tax revenues per pupil and give it to poorer districts.</p>
<p>But that does not apply to local property tax revenue dedicated to paying off debt in Texas. So school districts have a strong incentive to borrow money by selling bonds to pay for capital improvements, then use revenues from the wind farms to pay off the bonds.</p>
<p>As a result, school districts in Texas tend to put wind tax revenues into buildings and facilities, rather than into teachers and operations. For example, the Blackwell school district, in addition to its scholarship fund, has spent $15 million for a new football stadium and academic complex.</p>
<h2>Impact on school finances</h2>
<p>The growth in wind energy development over time and across the country provides an ideal setting to examine how wind energy – or really any outside boost in funding – can impact school district finances and, in turn, student performance.</p>
<p>Our sample included 638 school districts that had a wind energy installation at some point between 1995 and 2017. Not surprisingly, these “wind districts” tend to be smaller and more rural than the average school district. </p>
<p><iframe id="g0wGE" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/g0wGE/9/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We found that new wind farms result in large increases in the amount of local revenue that is brought in per student, with only small reductions in state aid. We also found large boosts in per-pupil expenditures. Texas, especially, collected and spent more than other states.</p>
<p><iframe id="IDbea" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/IDbea/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>But we found that most of those new expenditures were used for building improvements or new facilities rather than operating or “current” expenses. District spending on buildings went up by as much as 73%, while operating expenditures increased only slightly, by about 2%.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A local school undergoes construction." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397154/original/file-20210426-21-1jbp8mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schools are more likely to use new wind revenues to build up their infrastructure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/overall-shows-a-2-story-building-under-construction-at-news-photo/1229426574?adppopup=true">Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Formulas at play</h2>
<p>This allocation of funds seems to be driven in part by the formulas that states use to provide aid to local school districts. States typically reduce the amount of funds they send to a district that sees an increase in local tax revenues, in order to equalize spending.</p>
<p>In some cases, though, that applies only when a district spends more on day-to-day operations, not when it boosts building improvements or new construction. So to avoid losing state aid, districts are more likely to use any new local revenues from wind farms for new buildings or repairs than for operating expenses. </p>
<p>This is exactly what we saw in our study. While school facilities and equipment no doubt improved, new wind farm revenues resulted in little to no change in class sizes or teacher salaries. In line with past research that shows better lower student-to-teacher ratios are <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-of-a-difference-does-the-number-of-kids-in-a-classroom-make-125703">clearly connected to student achievement</a>, we found little change in student outcomes.</p>
<p>So while new development from wind energy can significantly boost rural economies and tax revenues, decisions on how the money is used are still made within the constraints of local school finance policy and law.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Brunner received funding from the the Wind Energy Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 to support this research project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Hoen receives funding from the Wind Energy Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Hyman received funding from the the Wind Energy Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 to support this research project.</span></em></p>Despite a growth in revenue from wind farms, many rural school districts are being nudged by policy and law to spend the money on buildings and not instruction.Eric Brunner, Professor of Economics and Policy, University of ConnecticutBen Hoen, Research Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryJoshua Hyman, Assistant Professor of economics, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1582922021-04-05T17:07:22Z2021-04-05T17:07:22ZOntario’s ‘choice’ of fully online school would gamble on children for profit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393176/original/file-20210401-19-1wd6yxa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C188%2C3000%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students arrive at Dartmouth High School in Dartmouth, N.S., on Sept. 8, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite the lack of data documenting benefits to children, and emerging evidence of several drawbacks and harms, the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-considers-move-to-make-remote-learning-permanent-for-all/">Ontario government is discussing making full-time online schooling a permanent “choice” in public education</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-choice-policies-are-associated-with-increased-separation-of-students-by-social-class-149902">'School choice' policies are associated with increased separation of students by social class</a>
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<p>This idea is being introduced without adequate research, and stands to become the <a href="https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v10i14.186326">latest measure that</a> raises inequality and <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/31168">threatens the viability</a> of education as a public good.</p>
<p>The <em>Globe and Mail</em> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/permanent-online-school-1.5964008">obtained an Ontario Ministry of Education</a> presentation dated March 22, 2021, <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20527907/initiatives-committee-_-expanding-student-access-to-online-and-remote-learning.pdf">detailing the prospect of continued virtual learning</a> after the COVID-19 pandemic. The province aims to partner with <a href="https://www.tvo.org/about">TVO</a> to offer “fully independent online learning” for “Ontario and out-of-province secondary students” and also mentions continuing “synchronous remote learning” for elementary students.</p>
<p>The proposal coincides with apparent plans to continue to help fund Ontario education by selling curriculum abroad. In 2015, Ontario reported it had agreements <a href="http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/policyfunding/strategyK12.pdf">with 19 international private schools that pay the province to deliver the Ontario curriculum</a>.</p>
<h2>Unpacking the known harms</h2>
<p>While the COVID-19 environment has produced unique challenges, many of the greatest difficulties for young people have been associated with the forced shift out of schools and into online learning. Online learning <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1358684X.2020.1791691">does not replace</a> the complex, relationship-oriented learning and social environment in schools.</p>
<p>Fully online learning has had consequences for mental health, with increased feelings of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105225">social isolation</a>. There have also been challenges to physical health, as youth grappled with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000215">lack of physical activity</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/optometrists-see-more-myopia-in-kids-blame-increased-screen-time-amid-pandemic-1.5966183">deteriorating eyesight</a>. Even among older youth learners, motivation and engagement prove difficult to sustain online, with a <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/promises-and-pitfalls-of-online-education/">higher potential for dropping out</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/04/i-cant-get-motivated-the-students-struggling-with-online-learning">worse outcomes for disadvantaged students</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the negative outcomes associated with full-time online study for youth and without sufficient data to support its rationale, the Ontario government is introducing an unasked for “choice” that would set a detrimental precedent for public education. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Teens going to school." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393184/original/file-20210401-19-lyarqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393184/original/file-20210401-19-lyarqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393184/original/file-20210401-19-lyarqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393184/original/file-20210401-19-lyarqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393184/original/file-20210401-19-lyarqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393184/original/file-20210401-19-lyarqf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393184/original/file-20210401-19-lyarqf.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">Students arrive for school in Ottawa on Feb. 1, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More screen time?</h2>
<p>Some might argue that getting students comfortable with online technologies <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/54695/ontario-brings-learning-into-the-digital-age">prepares them for future study and the workforce</a>. In my research on youth literacy and online engagement, however, I explore how student proficiency in navigating technology should not be mistaken for understanding complex information. </p>
<p>My work is part of a wider body of emerging research that examines how students make sense of the online environment — and how being online affects their literacy skills, including their capacities to form critical questions and navigate misinformation and disinformation. </p>
<p>I have also determined that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1803834">literacy learning can be strengthened</a> when students and teachers explore the emotional implications of contentious issues in a classroom community. In other words, leaving students alone in front of screens for even more of their already <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/">online-immersed</a> day does not improve their critical thinking or engagement. </p>
<p>For adolescents, learning online doesn’t replace in-person interactions with teachers, other students and community members. These interactions, far from superficial or inconsequential, are at the heart of how students learn well. In the pandemic, many teachers have voiced concerns about how an online environment <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-prevent-teacher-burnout-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-139353">hampers their ability to tailor learning and to support their students with the full range of strategies</a> that are available in the classroom. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A teenager learning online" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393186/original/file-20210401-23-8gm4c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393186/original/file-20210401-23-8gm4c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393186/original/file-20210401-23-8gm4c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393186/original/file-20210401-23-8gm4c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393186/original/file-20210401-23-8gm4c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393186/original/file-20210401-23-8gm4c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393186/original/file-20210401-23-8gm4c3.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For adolescents, learning online doesn’t replace in-person interactions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet another worrying aspect is the risk to student privacy. There is ongoing concern about how tech companies may be gaining <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/21/21146998/google-new-mexico-children-privacy-school-chromebook-lawsuit">unprecedented insight into children’s lives</a> and how data may be used. </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/childrens-privacy-is-at-risk-with-rapid-shifts-to-online-schooling-under-coronavirus-135787">Children's privacy is at risk with rapid shifts to online schooling under coronavirus</a>
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<p>There are also issues of tech monopolies that muddy the line between public education and private enterprise.</p>
<h2>Generating revenue</h2>
<p>Students have opportunities to engage with online learning in Ontario’s current framework. There is <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-doug-fords-e-learning-gamble-high-school-students-will-lose-122826">no need to introduce compulsory online courses</a> or the option of full-time online learning. </p>
<p>With all the issues implied by full-time online learning, why would Ontario consider making this a permanent feature of public education? Before the pandemic, in February 2020, the government <a href="https://theconversation.com/mandatory-e-learning-is-a-problem-in-ontario-high-schools-133041">was striving to introduce mandatory online learning in secondary school</a>. </p>
<p>In a confidential Ontario government document <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2020/01/13/secret-document-shows-ford-government-changed-its-mind-before-making-online-course-mandatory-for-high-schoolers.html">written sometime between March and August 2019</a> and obtained by the <em>Toronto Star</em>, the current Ford government detailed a plan to dovetail cuts to school board funding with the opportunity to “to develop (a) business model to make available and market Ontario’s online learning system to out-of-province and international students.” It is telling that the document did not foreground the benefits of full-time online learning for students.</p>
<p>The reasons for this shift can be attributed to the ongoing drive to privatize public education through the twin aims of reducing costs and generating new revenue. The 2019 document also mentioned examining “feasible options for selling licensing rights to courses/content to other jurisdictions.” </p>
<h2>Curriculum sales</h2>
<p>The current discussions should be seen in the context of Ontario’s drive to <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-high-schools-are-underfunded-and-turning-to-international-tuition-to-help-127753">create revenue streams</a> through international student tuition and sales of curriculum to international schools. </p>
<p>Ontario’s March 22 proposal for online schooling describes a plan to develop curriculum and offer an education “<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20527907/initiatives-committee-_-expanding-student-access-to-online-and-remote-learning.pdf">with little teacher support</a>.” </p>
<p>This “<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20527907/initiatives-committee-_-expanding-student-access-to-online-and-remote-learning.pdf">business plan</a>” follows Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announcing the appointment of a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/2020/11/17/former-cfl-commissioner-jeffrey-orridge-named-new-chief-executive-officer-of-tvo.html">former CFL commisioner</a> to the role of TVO’s CEO. TVO’s website has been recently retooled to include an emphasis on “digital learning.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students in a band class." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393179/original/file-20210401-13-16w34so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393179/original/file-20210401-13-16w34so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393179/original/file-20210401-13-16w34so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393179/original/file-20210401-13-16w34so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393179/original/file-20210401-13-16w34so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393179/original/file-20210401-13-16w34so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393179/original/file-20210401-13-16w34so.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">
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<span class="caption">Moving to fully online learning could risk limiting opportunities for extra-curricular learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Potential future harms</h2>
<p>For children, fully online learning creates the conditions for further educational inequality. It is a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-020-01706-1">particular risk</a> for children with special education needs. </p>
<p>It can also produce unintended consequences: a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105225">recent study</a> based in Ecuador showed female students working online were more likely to spend time doing housework than their male counterparts. It is not unimaginable that some families could select online schooling for their children so they could help with household work, care for family members and potentially supplement family income by entering the labour market earlier. The move also risks limiting opportunities for extra-curricular socialization and learning, including experiences with the arts and sports. </p>
<p>Once <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjeap/article/view/31168">poorly researched educational policy</a> comes into practice, it is difficult to undo irrespective of data that details its harms. Such has been the case with the introduction of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10833-020-09380-5">standardized testing</a> in Ontario, which marginalizes newcomers and students with exceptionalities, and encourages a narrow curriculum. </p>
<p>Over time, a policy of “choice” for full-time online schooling weakens public education by diluting in-person opportunities for students and eroding funding. An impoverished public system drives families into private schools, which further erodes the public good. Defunding and marketization will leave public education in a race to the bottom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lana Parker receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>A policy of “choice” for full-time online schooling would weaken public education, erode funding for in-classroom supports and drive those who can afford it to private education.Lana Parker, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1571442021-03-23T18:50:40Z2021-03-23T18:50:40ZEducation funding is unfair — and public schools asking parents to chip in makes it worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391040/original/file-20210323-17-smiesz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5184%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-mother-daughter-leaving-school-432179689">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We have estimated around $8 billion of non-government or private funding flows through Australia’s school system each year — both public and private. The vast majority of this comes from school fees. The rest is from “<a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/finance-data-dictionary.pdf">other private sources</a>”, including donations and community fund-raising.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the independent school sector generates the most private income. But public schools also receive private income that goes towards things like refurbishing facilities.</p>
<p>We analysed private income in every Australian school using data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). At the time of our study, the latest figures available for school fees and income were from 2015. </p>
<p>We found independent schools totalled an average A$9,227 of private funding per student. This was followed by Catholic schools ($2,873) and government schools ($752). </p>
<h2>What are parents paying for school?</h2>
<p>We found <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13384-019-00319-1">school incomes from private sources increase</a> with the relative advantage of a school. </p>
<p>Relative advantage is defined using ACARA’s <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/media/1820/guide-to-understanding-icsea-values.pdf">Index of Community Socio-educational Advantage</a> (ICSEA). This scale is a proxy for socioeconomic status used by education sectors in Australia. </p>
<p>ACARA calculates the ICSEA score for each school using factors such as students’ parental education and occupation, the proportion of Indigenous students at the school, students with a language background other than English and the school’s geographical location. </p>
<p>An ICSEA score above 1,000 indicates greater socioeconomic and educational advantage; an ICSEA score below 1,000 indicates greater disadvantage. In our analysis, we put schools into four categories: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>very disadvantaged (ICSEA 900 and less)</p></li>
<li><p>disadvantaged (ICSEA from 901 to 1,000) </p></li>
<li><p>advantaged (ICSEA from 1,001 to 1,100)</p></li>
<li><p>very advantaged (ICSEA more than 1,100).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Parents in very disadvantaged independent schools paid an average of $1,225 in 2015 per student. This increased to an average of $14,624 in very advantaged independent schools.</p>
<p>Parent fees at the most advantaged government schools were $745 in 2015 per student. At the most disadvantaged government schools, parents paid around $299 per student.</p>
<p><iframe id="L6Al8" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/L6Al8/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>School fees on the rise</h2>
<p>Private school fees are growing faster than inflation and are now one of the biggest financial outlays in the average Australian family. </p>
<p>Only 50% of families with children attending private schools pay fees from their disposable incomes. The rest, according to <a href="https://edstart.com.au/blog/record-low-wage-growth-impact-on-family-budget-and-school-fees/">market-based research by Edstart</a>, increase their credit card debt, take out personal loans, redraw on their mortgage, or borrow money — often from grandparents. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-next-government-needs-to-do-to-tackle-unfairness-in-school-funding-110879">What the next government needs to do to tackle unfairness in school funding</a>
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<p>According to the latest financial data from ACARA, fees have increased in some public schools since 2015, too. </p>
<p>Using metropolitan Brisbane schools as an example, <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/47507/finances/2019">Macgregor State High</a> (ICSEA 1,018) had a 19% increase in fees between 2015 and 2019 — from $576 to $715 respectively. <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/47543/finances/2019">Browns Plains State High</a> (ICSEA 963) had a 10% increase from $273 to $305, and <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/47551/finances/2019">Bray Park State High</a> (ICSEA 989) had a 6% increase from $387 to $415. </p>
<p>But many public school fees had a less than 2% increase, and some, like <a href="https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/47578/finances">Kelvin Grove State College</a> (ICSEA 1,129) actually reduced their fees from $1,714 to $1,532 per student between 2015 and 2019. Other very advantaged public schools also reduced fees.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victorian-state-school-parents-spend-record-400m-on-free-education-20210314-p57akt.html">article in The Age</a> showed families in Victoria spent a total of $400.1 million for the 2019-20 financial year in public schools. </p>
<p>The article said data from ACARA showed total parent payments to Victorian state schools have risen by $160 million since 2009.</p>
<h2>What happened to free education?</h2>
<p>Fees in public schools are often referred to as voluntary contributions. This is because <a href="https://ppr.qed.qld.gov.au/attachment/user-charging-procedure.pdf">government legislation</a> prevents public schools attaching parental fees to student enrolments. </p>
<p>But public schools <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220620.2019.1689234">sometimes use various strategies</a> to promote fee payment. For instance, schools may exclude students from extra-curricular activities and excursions if parents have not paid fees. This may compel parents to pay to avoid their child’s embarrassment. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/some-public-schools-get-nearly-6-times-as-much-funding-thanks-to-parents-117268">Some public schools get nearly 6 times as much funding, thanks to parents</a>
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<p>There are other ways parents contribute money to public schools. </p>
<p>Bake sales, fetes and “democracy sausage” sizzles have always been a cornerstone of public schooling. And like their private school counterparts, public schools are now investing in strategic fundraising with parents and alumni, and sponsorship arrangements with businesses and philanthropists.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391023/original/file-20210323-13-ahc8je.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>
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<span class="caption">School fundraise using various means, such as bake sales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gluten-nut-free-items-bake-sale-614435771">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In our study, we found very advantaged independent schools received the most funding from “other” income sources, compared to all other independent schools. But in the public school sector, the very disadvantaged schools received the most from “other” income sources, compared to other public schools. This was the same in the Catholic school sector, where the very disadvantaged schools received the most from “other” income sources. This may be because disadvantaged schools are receiving targeted philanthropy. </p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://www.schoolsplus.org.au/">Schools Plus</a> is an intermediary organisation that works to connect disadvantaged schools with donors through a tax-deductible giving program.</p>
<p>Since 2015, Schools Plus has directed $17.8 million to both public and private disadvantaged schools in Australia. Most of these donations come from the corporate sector, large trusts and foundations, and high-net worth individuals. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.schoolsplus.org.au/success-stories/2020-impact-report/">Schools Plus 2020 Impact Report</a>, most schools apply for funding to help improve student engagement and performance. While all disadvantaged schools (with an ICSEA less than 1,000) are eligible for Schools Plus funding, the process is competitive, meaning not all schools that need extra funding receive it. </p>
<h2>An equity issue</h2>
<p>Income raising is a labour-intensive process that is re-imagining the role of school staff and parents. Raising money relies on entrepreneurial principals, savvy PR staff, engaged parents and parent committees, as well as the work of intermediary organisations like Schools Plus. This is a problem, especially when it comes to public schools.</p>
<p>Research from the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2017.1421432">United States</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220620.2020.1850433">United Kingdom</a> cautions that an over-reliance on private income could lead to governments shirking some responsibility for resourcing and supporting schools. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-primary-private-schools-should-be-fully-funded-by-governments-but-banned-from-charging-fees-131753">Australian primary private schools should be fully funded by governments — but banned from charging fees</a>
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<p>This has the potential, if it has not already, to produce a multi-tiered education system based on parental capacity and inclination to pay. </p>
<p>The ongoing issue here is one of equity. When schools start relying on private funding (both fees and philanthropy) to augment how basic education services are provided, schools in most need of extra support are the least likely to be able to afford it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Hogan receives funding from the Australian Research Council (project DP170103647). The views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Parents don’t only pay for private schools. Many public schools ask parents to make ‘voluntary contributions’, and many more are upping their fundraising game.Anna Hogan, Senior lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1442812020-08-18T01:44:36Z2020-08-18T01:44:36ZCanada doesn’t fully fund its private primary schools, and Australia shouldn’t either<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352914/original/file-20200814-20-16fyjqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-canadian-elementary-school-building-flagpole-65329756">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The former NSW education minister and now head of the UNSW Gonski Institute, Adrian Piccoli, suggested in recent days Australian governments should fully fund <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/governments-should-fully-fund-private-primary-schools-says-piccoli-20200810-p55kbu.html">all non-government primary schools</a>.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-way-to-fix-the-biggest-structural-problem-in-australian-education-20200808-p55jv4.html">opinion piece</a> published by the Sydney Morning Herald, Piccoli wrote this would fix inequality — as long as non-government schools also stopped charging fees and followed the same enrolment and accountability rules as public schools.</p>
<p>He wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This idea is neither new nor radical. Canada has operated this way for decades and find themselves with an education system far more equitable and much higher performing than Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a researcher with expertise on the Canadian education system, I think there are several aspects of this claim worth clarifying and examining more closely.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1293098574960447488"}"></div></p>
<h2>Canada doesn’t fully fund private schools</h2>
<p>It’s important to note there is no such thing as “Canadian” education. In Canada, under the terms of the constitution, each province holds the jurisdiction and autonomy to set their own educational policies. So, there is no overarching ministry or agency at the federal level, meaning education policy remains highly decentralised. </p>
<p>Canada remains an outlier, globally, as it does not grant any central body control over education across the country — which comes as a surprise to many.</p>
<p>Funding remains quite complex in all jurisdictions (try to understand how <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-gonski-anyway-13599">funding formulas work even in Australia</a>!). But to the second point, in Canada, only some (five) of the ten provinces provide partial funding to private schools while in three of the provinces (Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan) <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-primary-private-schools-should-be-fully-funded-by-governments-but-banned-from-charging-fees-131753">Catholic schools are fully funded</a> as part of a separate, but also public, school system.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-primary-private-schools-should-be-fully-funded-by-governments-but-banned-from-charging-fees-131753">Australian primary private schools should be fully funded by governments — but banned from charging fees</a>
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<p>For example, in British Columbia a tiered system <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-private-school-funding-explainer-1.5043035">allows some private schools</a> to receive <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/program-management/independent-schools/funding">up to 50% funding</a> from the government, while <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-october-29-2017-1.4374949/are-quebec-s-private-high-schools-creating-a-segregated-society-1.4374965">in Quebec</a> such <a href="http://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/02/03/quebecs-sadly-distinct-education-system/">funding can top out at 60%</a> .</p>
<p>In Ontario, where I teach, private schools receive no government funding. It should also be noted that, overall, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181102/dq181102c-eng.htm">well over 90% of all students</a> across Canada attend public schools. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fewer-students-are-going-to-public-secondary-schools-in-australia-79425">Fewer students are going to public secondary schools in Australia</a>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352919/original/file-20200814-20-esithk.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>
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<span class="caption">There’s no such thing as a ‘Canadian’ education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/caucasian-children-superhero-cotumes-masks-holding-1362995111">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In short then, Canada as a whole does not provide significant taxpayer dollars to support private schools.</p>
<p>In effect, the idea being put forward — that all primary private schools should be publicly funded and required to abide by certain policies, rules and accountability measures — is essentially the idea of enhancing school choice through something akin to charter schools, which have emerged in Canada and many other countries. </p>
<h2>Charter schools in Canada</h2>
<p>Charter schools can be best understood as a hybrid of public and private schools. </p>
<p>Though they vary by name and context, the idea of charter schools is to allow <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/30/18076968/charter-schools">private educational providers</a> the opportunity to secure public funding for their schools. In the United States, where charter schools have proliferated, charters can also be run as <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-exploit-lucrative-loophole-that-would-be-easy-to-close-111792">for-profit entities</a>.</p>
<p>In Canada, <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434?">only one province</a>, Alberta, allows for charter schools to exist. These schools are fully funded by the government and as such, must abide by the rules and policies set out by the government. </p>
<p>Currently, there are just 13 schools operating, but recent legislation is set <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/parents-educators-worry-ucps-amended-education-act-creates-inequity-in-public-system">for them to expand</a>. Alberta’s charter schools include a school for children who are “<a href="https://www.newhorizons.ca/about/">academically gifted</a>,” <a href="https://indspire.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/MECCS-Final.pdf">an Indigenous school</a> and a school <a href="http://esl-almadina.com/about/about-us/">for children learning English</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
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<p>While Canada has received its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-40708421">fair share of accolades</a> in recent years — such as appearing in the top ten countries for reading, maths and science in recent PISA tests – such assertions are often based strictly on measures such as <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018_CN_CAN.pdf">standardised testing</a>. Nevertheless, these findings highlight strong outcomes in both educational quality and equity in a country <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10665684.2015.991162?journalCode=ueee20">which maintains</a> a robust K-12 public education system.</p>
<p>While there are gaps and room for improvement across all levels and systems, public education remains a public good which is intended to serve the needs of all. Funding for private forms of education and the false promises of “school choices” are often <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/431184?mobileUi=0&">misguided efforts</a> which actually continue to drive educational inequalities and inequities.</p>
<p>There is no one-size-fits-all approach to educational success and no silver bullet to enacting effective educational reform. But supporting local, universal and accessible public schools still provides the best opportunity to meet the needs of all students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Mindzak 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 former education minister recently suggested Australian governments fully fund private primary schools, like Canada does. But a Canadian educational researcher says this isn’t accurate.Michael Mindzak, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1317532020-08-11T06:49:15Z2020-08-11T06:49:15ZAustralian primary private schools should be fully funded by governments — but banned from charging fees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352133/original/file-20200811-18-l73001.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/collective-work-little-pupils-all-busy-345233993">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To fix inequality in Australian education, governments should fully fund <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/governments-should-fully-fund-private-primary-schools-says-piccoli-20200810-p55kbu.html">all non-government primary schools</a>, according to former former NSW Education Minister and now head of the UNSW Gonski Institute, Adrian Piccoli.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-way-to-fix-the-biggest-structural-problem-in-australian-education-20200808-p55jv4.html">opinion piece</a> published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Piccoli suggests government funding be dependent on non-government schools no longer collecting fees from parents and agreeing to abide by the same enrolment and accountability rules as public schools.</p>
<p>The fully-funded non-government primary private schools would still be run by the same organisations as before, and abide by the same educational philosophy. But no student would be turned away. </p>
<p>Fully funding primary schools would enable parents to access neighbourhood non-government schools at no cost. It would provide welcome relief for parents who now send their children to non-government primary schools, but who are facing difficulties paying fees due to the COVID-19 recession. </p>
<p>We are co-authors on a report documenting the rising inequality in Australian education, with Adrian Piccoli and educational consultant Chris Bonnor. The report will be released by the Gonski Institute in coming days. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explaining-australias-school-funding-debate-whats-at-stake-100023">Explaining Australia's school funding debate: what's at stake</a>
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<p>Our previous <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2020/03/16/myth-busted--private-schools-don-t-save-taxpayers--dollars.html#:%7E:text=Their%20report%2C%20'The%20School%20Money,culture%20publication%20Inside%20Story%20today.&text=The%20researchers%20said%20this%20is,level%20as%20similar%20public%20schools.">analysis of the MySchool website</a> found many non-government schools cost the government almost as much money as government schools. Having them abide by the same rules as do public schools would go some way towards decreasing inequality in Australian education. </p>
<h2>How it might work in Australia</h2>
<p>Fully-funding all Australian primary schools is a relatively straightforward proposition. But attached to it must be a renegotiated set of mutual obligations between schools and those who fund them — that is, elected governments. This must have the explicit goal of improving equitable outcomes for all communities, not just those which are already advantaged.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1293018895461134336"}"></div></p>
<p>The additional cost of full recurrent public funding of all non-government primary schools is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/there-s-a-way-to-fix-the-biggest-structural-problem-in-australian-education-20200808-p55jv4.html">estimated to be about A$500 million a year</a> across Australia. Given Australian governments spend almost $60 billion a year on school education this equates to a relatively small investment.</p>
<p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rnn0w1nWYreOMRSsDfzt4n8KXHaGbw2h/view">Our earlier report</a> has shown many non-government schools are nearly fully-funded to the levels established by the Gonski reviews and some fall short. Yet, remarkably, some remain in excess of their calculated entitlement — a quirk of a decision to <a href="https://saveourschools.com.au/funding/a-critique-of-the-ses-funding-model-for-private-schools/">not disadvantage over-funded schools</a>.</p>
<p>By fully funding primary schools these disparities can be addressed and more equitable funding provided. </p>
<p>Removing fees will likely create additional demand for some schools. Parents who value a particular model (Montessori, Steiner, religious) but who do not have the resources to pay might increase enrolment interest. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-some-australian-private-schools-are-overfunded-heres-why-66212">Yes, some Australian private schools are overfunded – here's why</a>
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<p>Funding would flow with the student. This means the schools would be resourced to cater for their enrolment. Exclusion would not be permitted, as is currently the case in fully-funded government schools. </p>
<p>More radically, non-government schools could partner more closely with other local government schools, perhaps even relocating students through local proximity.</p>
<h2>Other countries do it already</h2>
<p>While the suggestion to fully fund primary private schools might appear radical to many Australians, a variety of models already exist outside Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352153/original/file-20200811-17-1h8m9ud.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>
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<span class="caption">Parents who were interested, would be able to send their kids to a school with a particular philosophy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-teacher-reading-story-group-elementary-1451264681">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/40/part/3">UK government funds state schools</a> in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation), contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In most cases the foundation or trust owns the buildings. These are called voluntary-aided schools.</p>
<p>New Zealand has <a href="https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/living-in-nz/education/school-system">state-integrated schools</a>. These allow for collaboration between the government and a private proprietor in a way that preserves the special character of the proprietor and the school — such as having Montessori and Steiner approaches.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-uk-labour-party-wants-to-abolish-private-schools-could-we-do-that-in-australia-124271">The UK Labour Party wants to abolish private schools – could we do that in Australia?</a>
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<p>In Canada, provision of faith-based schooling derives from the founding Constitution. Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, for instance, provide students with <a href="https://usedulaw.com/249-denominational-schools-in-canada.html">fully funded Catholic schools</a>.</p>
<p>We aren’t necessarily advocating for any of these particular models in Australia. On the contrary, we are calling for a redesign that will reflect our contextual governance, history and culture, and that must also include better outcomes for our First Nations Peoples.</p>
<p>Given the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/private-schools-brace-for-dropouts-amid-economic-crisis-caused-by-virus-20200325-p54dvi.html">financial difficulties</a> now facing many families, and schools, now is the time to act.
Redressing the growing and accelerating segregation and inequity in Australian schools is critical to the future of Australia’s youth and our economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131753/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>Fully funding private primary schools would significantly decrease inequity in Australia. And it wouldn’t cost the government too much more than it’s already spending on education.Rachel Wilson, Associate Professor in Education, University of SydneyPaul Kidson, Lecturer in Educational Leadership, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.