Greens need to escape captivity

Further examination of their policy would seem to indicate a number of 'corrections' to current funding arrangements in the non-government education sector littered through their manifest that would direct money away from non-government schools, private early childhood settings and private VET providers to government and community education facilities.

Perhaps as a consequence, some commentators have been more than a little outspoken in relation to The Greens education policy settings; some speaking of it being "ideologically extreme", having an "anti-religious bias", or suffering from "confusion or disarray".

Schools

From the IEU's perspective the determination to effectively reduce Commonwealth funding to all non-government schools (#65) and 'de-couple' the annual adjustment or indexation of funding from the actual increased costs in education (#62) would mean either job losses for staff in non-government schools, including Catholic primary parish schools, small faith based community schools through to larger, higher fee, well-established schools; or massive downward pressure on wages and conditions for workers in those schools; or perhaps significantly poorer learning conditions and opportunities for the students; or a combination of all three.

The policy either ignores or wishes to 'adjust' (social engineer) the current reality that more than half of all secondary students in capital cities across the country are enrolled in non-government schools, as if such parental choices are not legitimate.

The obsession with the 'wealthiest schools' (#64), an obsession shared by their single interest group, as the driver for their thinking on school funding policy is somewhat akin to the tip of the tail of the dog wagging the dog.

Around 2.1% only of all students (or 0.6% of all schools) attend these high fee schools. The vast majority of students enrolled in non-government schools have access to per capita resources at less than the amount in government schools.

The support of students with disabilities is broadly, in government and non-government schools, much less than it should be. But those students, whose siblings might also be enrolled in the local non-government school are massively further punished by the current funding arrangements if their parents choose to send them to the same non-government school and yet there is no recognition of their significant needs in The Greens policy.

Early Childhood

Responsibility and funding of early childhood education (pre-school) in Australia reflects the usual mosaic of state and territory approaches to a raft of government responsibilities.

In some jurisdictions the decision of governments to leave this responsibility primarily with the community or private sector has meant that there are quite different arrangements across the country.

It would seem that early childhood education policy from The Greens perspective, like schools, also falls into the "public good, private bad" mantra given that the policy only recognizes the right to two years of 'public preschool education' (#17), funding of new facilities only in public sector (#37) and that early childhood education should not be delivered by private providers (#11).

The IEU believes that a good education opens up a future of promise for Australian children and acknowledges that both government and non-government sectors can provide a quality education in this country.

It is up to parents to make up their mind as to where to send their children and not for political parties to engage in "picking winners" or preaching one sector over another.

For the parents who send their children to non-government schools, the teachers and other school workers that the IEU represents, there is a real concern that the Greens show little understanding of education funding in this country and show an alarming disregard for all non-government schools.

In the end, The Greens education policy needs to move from "four legs good, two legs bad" principle because at the heart of the issue are unspoken prejudices and intolerant attitudes, quite possibly sectarian, that are not evident in their other policy settings.

The IEU will seek to open a dialogue with the new federal Greens in order to get them to see that a modern political party needs to believe in a fair and equitable education system that treats all students, educators and schools with respect and funds all schools properly.