Transparency in Education a Sick Joke

Julia Gillard uses buzz words such as 'accountability'; 'evidence based'; 'openness'; and 'transparency'.  But Julia Gillard is neither transparent in her statements nor in her actions.

Gillard's Grasp of the Meaning of Transparency

One can glean some awareness of her interest in transparency through Gillard's rhetoric:

• 'New Era of Transparency for Australian schooling'

• 'Maximum Information '

• 'Deeper information'

• 'greater transparency and accountability of Australian schools'( not politicians!)

• 'Richer information is in everyone's interest'

 Gillard's transparency rule  covers schools but does not extend to politicians, bureaucrats, political parties and minders in the federal sphere. Citizens should look for, but will not discover public accountability and openness in primary and secondary education as far as the federal government is concerned.

Gillard's Media Release 5 October 2008.

Gillard's Media release 5 October 2008 entitled New York City Chancellor of Education to Visit Australia is a classic example of her lack of transparency. This Media Release fails to reveal the real relationship between Joel Klein and UBS, and what Joel Klein is really on about. Her 5 October Media Release conceals more than it really reveals. It is worse than opaque. It misleads.

 What is the Connection between UBS and Klein?

 Julia Gillard's Media Release reveals that 'UBS, a leading financial firm, has generously offered to sponsor Mr Klein's visit and I welcome the active involvement of UBS in promoting the importance of education...highlights of Mr Klein's itinerary will include a major public address and a dinner with leaders from the business and school sectors.'

Julia Gillard's Media Release gives the impression that the connection between UBS and Joel Klein is accidental. This is not so. DOGS have discovered from various sources the following:

Kathryn Wylde, president and Chief Executive Officer of the Partnership for New York City, an organisation of corporate chief executive officers which provides funding and other support for various initiatives, on behalf of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Joel Klein. Kathryn Wylde has also attacked Diane Ravitch, a supporter of public education in the USA.  UBS is a partner firm of Partnership for New York City. UBS appears to be fully behind the Michael Bloomberg/Joel Klein re-organisation of the New York Public School system and is in part funding some of these Bloomberg / Klein programs.

It would have constituted a further act of honesty and transparency if Julia Gillard had revealed the connection between Joel Klein and Sir Michael Barber.

According to 2007 information, Barber was  a partner at McKinsey and Co. and was advising Joel Klein, the New York City Chancellor . He was formerly a senior adviser to the Blair Government in relation to education from 1997 to 2005. He obtained a knighthood for his services to Blair's education so-called 'reforms'.

 Klein Approach Similar to  Gillard

One of the severest critics of Joel Klein is Diane Ravitch, a noted USA educationist. Ravitch's summary of what is happening in New York matches up with the concerns of the DOGS and their interpretation of the actions of Julia Gillard.

Statements from Diane Ravitch regarding the Klein New York Experiment:

• 'Many of today's critics want to replace public education with a completely choice based system of vouchers, privatisation and charter schools.'

• 'In an open market good schools would thrive, bad schools would die', but this is a ludicrous model to apply to public education.'

• 'At bottom, they would like to see the public system of the United States run like a business with employees hired and fired at will. They are ready to privatise and outsource whatever they can, trusting private managers to succeed where the public sector ( with themselves as leaders) has failed.'

•  'In the 1950s there was a lot of criticism of public education but reformers did not challenge the very existence of public education... that's no longer the case. '

•  'So this is the strange new era we are embarked upon in which the mantle of reformers has passed to those who would dismantle public education piece by piece.

Diane Ravitch is being attacked by people connected with Klein and Bloomberg for her comments on the New York situation.

What About Some Transparency Julia Gillard?

Funding Systems

In an address to the ACER research conference August 11 2008, Julia Gillard asserted the following:

• 'For a long time, ACER has published pieces from educational researchers decrying the lack of transparency about funding systems and about who attends and what happens in Australian schools.'

• 'I know you have concluded that politicians lack the will to put a spotlight on this vital information .'

• 'Can I assure you, the Rudd Labour Government does not lack the political courage.'

DOGS  assure Julia Gillard that there is plenty of evidence that neither her, Mr Rudd nor their predecessors have the intestinal fortitude to take on those who have taken the taxpayers for a ride since at least 1969.

Taxpayer Funding of Each Church School:

No political party since the advent of State Aid, when the public school systems were taken to the cleaners by the Interim and permanent Schools Commission, have been prepared to provide to the public an accurate, detailed depiction of the State Aid manipulation. For instance, the first Schools Commission funding report deleted the number of pupils and money for each school in the same report.

Thirty five years later we still have no list of schools with their enrolments and individual grants of public money.

This obfuscation of Federal State Aid funding enabled the Roman Catholic bureaucracy in Victoria to transfer money for poor parish primary schools into the richer secondary schools.

True Incremental Costs of Education:

The  Liberal and National Party, together with the State and Federal ALP, have consistently refused since the 1970s to provide  any accurate incremental education costs data to public school supporters, citizens and taxpayers. It is obvious why our politicians are not transparent in this regard. Such a failure enables their private school supporters to provide completely inaccurate savings data of costs of  private schooling and in doing so assist the various political parties.

Transparency Should be Applied to Politicians, Bureaucrats and Political Parties

Julia Gillard should clean up her own backyard before she asks anyone else to be transparent and accountable. She should :

• inform us who writes/composes structures each of your speeches and media releases Julia?

• provide the taxpayers with information regarding each of your members of staff; where they went to school, and, if they have children, which schools they patronise; together with their knowledge and experience of public education.

• provide us with the names of all her  Ministerial advisers and assistants and where they went to school, and, if they have children, which schools they patronise.

• provide us with similar details of key federal education bureaucrats and any appointees to federal education committees. For instance, it would have been appropriate for Julia, if she was transparent,  to provide information on the schools patronised by members of  the Inclusion Collective for example, Ursula Stephens, the Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Prime Minister for Social Inclusion; Patricia Faulkner, The Chairperson of the Committee for Social Inclusion; and Monsignor David Cappo who is the Vice Chairman. Our research indicates that all three are graduates of the Roman Catholic School system, a system which excludes children on the basis of religious tests. Please note that Julia Gillard did not provide taxpayers with this information.

PUBLIC EDUCATION SUPPORTERS FIND THE APPROACH OF JULIA GILLARD TO

TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY AS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.