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Education: Choice? What choice?

By Jane Caro - posted Friday, 31 July 2009

So, by what fruits shall we judge 30 years of funding private schools?

Retention rates have stalled and may be slipping backwards.

Results are static or declining, are predicated on social class and we have one of the largest gaps in the OECD between our highest and lowest performing students.

Unconscionably, we seem to be using our public funding to exacerbate that gap rather than narrow it.

And we are only giving more choice to those who already have lots of it. Worse, we appear to be prioritising the right of better off parent’s to their personal choice of school over the right of our poorest and most vulnerable children to an excellent and properly funded education.

Maybe you can make all that sit comfortably with your conscience, but I can’t.

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Presentation at the IQ2 debate on June 25, 2009 by Jane Caro, third speaker for the affirmative.

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About the Author

Jane Caro is a Sydney writer with particular interests in women, families and education. She is the convenor of Priority Public. Jane Caro is the co author with Chris Bonnor of The Stupid Country: How Australia is Dismantling Public Education, published in August 2007 by UNSW Press.