Private school tuition trumps SES status

A second study, 'Long-term effects of Catholic schooling on wages', investigating what happens after tertiary studies are completed and graduates enter the workforce is that those who attended Catholic schools have a better chance of earning higher salaries.

Both American and Canadian research also concludes that students who have attended faith-based schools, compared to students in government schools, are more like to volunteer, to donate to charities and a more likely to marry and not divorce.

Trevor Cobbold refers to 30 studies to support his argument that non-government schools do not outperform government schools. Andrew J Coulson from the US out trumps Cobbold when he writes "In more than 150 statistical comparisons covering eight different educational outcomes, the private sector outperforms the public sector in the overwhelming majority of cases".

The critics, instead of attempting to downplay the performance of non-government schools, should focus on identifying the real reasons such schools do so well and then analyse what can be done to help government schools achieve similar results.

Dr Kevin Donnelly is a Senior Research fellow at the Australian Catholic University and he taught for 18 years in government and non-government secondary schools.