Public and private education do provide a ladder of opportunity

Contrary to what non-government school critics, like the Australian Education Union’s President Angelo Gavrielatos argues, it is simply not true that non-government schools receive more government funding than state schools.

Another fact that is also ignored by critics, who characterise independent schools as elitist and privileged, is that most of the growth in enrolments over the last 20 years or so has been in low fee-paying non-denominational schools serving less affluent communities.

Based on a commitment to overcoming disadvantage and under current funding arrangements it is also true that state and federal governments spend millions every year on programs designed to strengthen educational outcomes, especially in literacy and numeracy, for under-performing and at-risk groups of students.

Beginning with the Disadvantaged School Program in the 1970s and continuing to this day, disadvantaged schools receive additional targeted funding not available to more affluent schools.

It’s no secret that the AEU and academics like Richard Teese are hostile to non-government schools and, in the context of the current funding review chaired by David Gonski, that they would argue that the easiest way to strengthen educational outcomes for disadvantaged students is to take money from non-government schools and give it to state schools.

Ignored is that the existing funding model is based on need and disadvantaged students already receive more in government funds. Also ignored is that there is little, if any, correlation between levels of funding and educational outcomes.

Instead of throwing more money at disadvantaged schools a better option is to make such schools more effective and to create the conditions where teachers can deliver a quality education based on the premise that effort and ability can be rewarded.

Instead of penalising those parents who, through hard work and success in life, are able to afford to send their children to non-government schools, it’s also a good idea to realise that meritocracy and rewarding effort are better alternatives to the cultural-left’s utopian dream of enforcing equality and sameness for all.