Pyne good to his word on Gonski

It's no secret that parents are voting with their feet and flocking to non-government schools, proven by the fact that over a 10 years period enrolments grew by 20% while government schools flat lined at 1%.

It's also true that the reason why parents want Catholic and independent schools is because they are autonomous and, unlike state schools, are not controlled by governments and their bureaucracies.

The fact that the Gonski report argues in favour of school autonomy and giving schools the freedom to manage their own affairs and the fact that the Rudd government's model destroys this freedom is being ignored by journalists.

One only needs to read the ALP government's roadmap for Australian education, the National Education Reform Agreement and related National School Improvement Plan, to find evidence of Canberra's plan to takeover Australia's non-government schools.

As a condition of funding under the Rudd government's model every school across Australia must teach the national curriculum, do the national literacy and numeracy tests and adopt Canberra's approach to training and registering teachers.

Teachers and schools complain of excessive red tape and micromanagement – you can expect this command and control model to get a lot worse if the Rudd model is implemented.

Judged by the hysterical reaction to Minister Pyne's statement that Rudd's funding model, otherwise known as Gonski light, will be reviewed next year you'd think he had said something new.

Wrong. During the recent election campaign the Coalition promised, if elected to government, to maintain the same level of funding for the first 4 years as would have been received under Gonski light.

The Coalition policy also promised a review of the Rudd government's funding model, contained in the Australian Education Act, in order to promote greater autonomy at the school level and to promote greater diversity, flexibility and choice.