Why non-government schools provide the best model - part 2

The authors of the paper state, “… the results reveal that a higher difference between private and public schools in the share of government funding is detrimental for average student achievement and for equality of educational opportunity.  Thus, average student performance is lower in countries where private schools receive only little funding from the government… It seems that government funding of private schools benefits in particular students with low SES”.

Much of the Gonski report and Prime Minister Gillard’s Press Club speech embrace a cultural-left, deficit view of education.  Accordingly, the argument is that the main factor determining whether students achieve or not is their socioeconomic background; working class, migrant and other at-risk students are destined to underachieve and students from wealthy homes will always succeed.

In addition to being a self-fulfilling prophecy, and providing convenient ammunition for the cultural-left to mistakenly argue that capitalist society is riven with inequality and injustice, such a belief is simplistic and erroneous.  As outlined in this essay, there is a good deal of evidence suggesting that socioeconomic status is not the dominant factor influencing whether students succeed or not.

Equally, if not more important are factors like autonomy, diversity, competition and choice in education, best exemplified by Australia’s non-government school system.  If the ALP government is serious about lifting standards, strengthening schools and overcoming disadvantage then it should guarantee that such schools are properly funded and that its moral crusade in education does not further undermine the very characteristics that allow such schools to perform as well as they do.