Comment on Australian public school funding falls behind private schools as states fail to meet targets
stoic_sloth@aussie.zone 1 year agoPeople say this, but if we did as you suggest, there would be massive complaints that parents can’t freely choose their public schools due to catchments.
Further, it doesn’t preclude privates from charging extra on top, so you would still have a two tier education system as they private schools can attract the talent and teach only the best/easiest/richest students.
The fundamental issue of education is that if a school can choose its students, it will be a better school.
Our best public schools are basically either selective entry or just “happen” to be in suburbs with rich people or have a large population of Asians.
lordriffington@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Yeah, and if parents want their kids to go to the private schools, let the damn parents pay for it. Not the government. The entire point is for the lion’s share of government funding to go to schools open to all (or at least all students within a catchment area) and who are bound to adhere to the same rules as every other government-funded school.
Private schools are already charging extra. Let them charge more. The only change is that those parents who do want to send their kids to private school will either have to pay the extra or accept that their kids will have to go to a public school.
It ultimately comes down to funding. Pretty much all of those ‘better’ public schools have more money than the others, mostly due to being in higher income areas and having parents who are able to contribute more, give to fundraisers, etc.
abhibeckert@lemmy.world 1 year ago
No I don’t think it’s funding at all. None of the things that make a good school cost much money. Sure, the fancy private schools have nicer uniforms, go on more excursions, had better sports equipment, but none of that has much impact.
The stuff that really has an impact is allowing the school to choose its students. For example if a kid threatens to kill a teacher in a public school, they are politely told “don’t do that” and… that’s it. There’s basically nothing else the school can do. Not a hypothetical example by the way, it’s a real one. In a study a few years ago, 99.6 per cent of Queensland public school teachers claimed to have “experienced workplace bullying” and most of them were bullied by students. I know lots of teachers, and they back that up with their personal experience.
In a private school - those students are kicked out. That’s a real consequence and the result is the bullying doesn’t happen in the first place.
If basically every teacher has been bullied, that means every student is being bullied as well. I don’t want my kid to go through that shit if at all possible. Which is why I prefer a private school. Not because they have better funding, but because they can choose their students.
stoic_sloth@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Doesn’t matter how logical you are: the net effect is that in the immediate, some kids who could have gone to private schools (with great familial effort) won’t be able to and thus receive a lower quality education.
Will you sacrifice the quality of your kids education for the greater good?
History, cause we have seen all this before, says you won’t.
lordriffington@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Your question implies that I wouldn’t believe they could get a good enough education at a public school (which frankly says more about you.) If I were to have another child and needed to send them to school, I would absolutely send them to a public school, even if I could afford the “best” private schools.
So while I reject your assertion that it’s as cut and dried as ‘private school=better,’ the answer is yes. I would.
abhibeckert@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah - I think that’s the key difference between you and most people (like me) who prefer private schools.
I know my local public school - there is only one public school. The NAPLAN results show the student education levels are “Well Below” the Australian Standard level.
The local private school, on the other hand, lists scores “Well Above” on NAPLAN. And it’s cheap as to send my kid there.
stoic_sloth@aussie.zone 1 year ago
I am not saying that private is always better, but the catchment rules for public mean that your kids might be going to a relatively bad public school just purely due to demographics.
History says that educationally minded parents are unwilling to send their kids to such a school…which further entrenches that schools low performance.
You might be willing to do so, but the aggregate are not.
It’s why this situation is politically fraught: short voting incentives prevent politicians from fixing it as it costs them their voters.