The education election: much ado about nothing

So that’s the ALP. There is more, not least the placing of the corrupted schools funding system on life support for an additional year. That did come as a surprise because Gillard looked like holding to her stated timeline for the current review. Her faith in the review apparently took second place to her need to build up credentials with omnipresent faiths of a different kind, helped along by her proposed expansion of school chaplaincy.

What about the Opposition? Their website provides even less detail and evidence for their offerings. Their policy bag is mostly predictable. They can better Gillard’s national testing of kids every two years by testing them every year. They want to dismantle trade training centres and wind back the so-called digital education “revolution” more to resemble the scale of a minor kerfuffle than a revolution.

The Liberals are ambivalent about the review of school funding, preferring to maintain the current discredited system. That will be interesting to watch if they get over the line on August 21, as the distortions inherent in current funding continue to compound its glaring inequities. On the subject of inequities the ALP has previously nudged open the door for tax-deductibility of some school expenses, extending it now to cover school uniforms. Not to be outdone, the Liberals have thrown school fees into mix.

This opens up future possibilities for the Liberals. Why bother reforming the school funding structure? It would be much easier (and cheaper) to shift the whole burden of funding onto parents and the tax system. It will avoid all that nasty focus on demonstrably wealthy schools - and the larger snouts in the public funding trough will be less visible. It would be brutally regressive and destructive of the public good in education, but such concerns haven’t stopped us in the past.

As expected, the Liberals unearthed funding vouchers for kids with learning disabilities - and without mentioning the “v” word. Just like tax-deductibility for school fees, vouchers can be forever widened as desired. Yet even the Americans have largely abandoned vouchers, preferring to dismantle public schooling through the establishment of charter schools (the English equivalent is the locally-controlled academy). How did Tony miss this one? Maybe next time.

Space doesn’t allow me to comment on the Greens. They have 66 beliefs, wants and wills, but few details. They are frequently criticised for lightweight policies outside environment issues but they are certainly closer to reality in education. Leaving aside costing issues (few details are provided) their policies go closest to ensuring excellence with equity, a glaring deficiency in the Gillard/Abbott offerings.

I’ve probably left out some really important and cutting edge policy initiatives: blame it on the jetlag or excessive eye glazing as each exciting new initiative is announced. Silly me, I should have jumped the border while overseas and claimed refugee status in Canada. My grounds: their national government plays no part in education and they seem to have avoided the Anglo-American “school reforms” to which, regardless of the outcome, this election has committed Australia for years to come.