It has been revealed today via a confidential discussion “green paper” leaked to Fairfax Media, that the Abbott Government is considering forcing wealthy parents to pay to send their children to public schools. From The SMH:
The idea is outlined in a confidential discussion paper, developed within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, that is set to spark a new national debate on school funding.
The schools chapter of the Abbott government’s green paper on federation reform, obtained by Fairfax Media, also contains a proposal for the Commonwealth to abandon funding for all schools or for public schools…
The paper makes explicit the prospect of public school fees for high-income families by saying: “The States and Territories would have the option to ‘top-up’ funding to government schools, if they wished to do so, to ensure all public school students, regardless of the ability of families to make a contribution, were able to attend for free.”
Personally, I view charging higher income families to attend public schools a bad idea.
Universal education has benefits beyond just “free education”. It ensures that a wide array of children – rich, poor, athletes, nerds, kids with learning disabilities, and genius kids – all sit alongside one another, as we do in real life.
In turn, they learn that everyone’s different and how to get along.
Do we really want a society whereby children of wealthier families are separated from the rest, and the world is presented as “us versus them” or as “lifters versus leaners”? Similarly, do we want poorer segments of society stuck in underfunded, poorly performing schools?
There is more than a hint of a “doom loop” for public education here. First, cut public school funding and separate poor families from wealthier families. Next, public schools’ NAPLAN results decline causing further flight from those schools and their funding is cut again as their standards fail.
Either way, it’s an attack on the social fabric of society.
Thankfully, the proposal appears immediately to have been tossed on the scrap heap, from the AFR:
Federal education minister Christopher Pyne has distanced himself from a radical plan to make wealthy families pay for their children to attend public schools.
“The Australian government does not and will not support a means test for public education. Full stop. End of story,” Mr Pyne tweeted on Monday.
…And Prime Minister Tony Abbott said public school funding was a matter for state governments and the federal government has no role to play.
Except, perhaps, to seed stupid ideas.
