Demography can so easily become destiny

The government bus may only take Catholic school children as far as the nearest government school. So eleven students at the Catholic school at Loxton are dropped off sixteen kilometres from school at Loxton North. We had to pay $78,500 for a bus with seatbelts to ensure that small numbers of children can come to us. By contrast, to hire a bus to Adelaide and back costs $1,800.

Staff recruitment is a constant and expensive challenge, flying or driving applicants and accommodating them for interviews from the city to the bush.

Building costs in the country are 25 per cent dearer than in the city, and numerous extra costs need to be factored in to any budget for construction. The standard BER project at Roxby Downs gives the school a building shell, not a functioning hall.

Students with special needs also suffer more injustice in country areas and their needs must be met. In some rural schools there is simply not the funding available to accommodate children who seek to enrol. We cannot afford to provide the services, and thus these parents are denied choice.

Government schools have all this paid for, and that is right and just. The Catholic schools in the bush struggle. They have dedicated staff and provide excellent teaching. The schools are in demand from parents, and they provide choice for those parents. But we need more government funding if we are to do the right thing by our children and our teachers.

All schools (not only the Catholic schools) need to be allocated the funding that gives them a chance of providing the same level of education city schools offer, on principle.

The people arguing for greater funding equity post-Gonski would do well to concentrate on how the young people in our regional and rural schools are faring, and how the balance can be re-set to give them and their teachers a better chance.