AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT
SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 422
March 31, 2011
SUBMISSION FROM THE AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR
THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS TO THE SCHOOL FUNDING REVIEW.
MARCH 31 2011
The
Review of Funding for Schooling has published an Emerging Issues Paper in late
December 2010 – just before the Christmas break. Submissions are due on March
31 2011. What follows is the Defence Of Government Schools (DOGS) submission on
this paper.
Recommendations:
1.
Public moneys should not be given to
sectarian institutions
2.
If Public money IS given to sectarian
institutions the exact amounts of both direct and indirect grants along with
revenue forgone must be made accessible to all citizens and taxpayers.
3.
If public money IS given to sectarian
institutions then those institutions must be accountable for every cent.
4.
If public money IS given to sectarian
institutions for the purpose of education then a proper oversight of all
aspects (eg enrolments) must be undertaken.
5.
NO public money should be allocated to
any institution that requires, demands or receives any
special exemption from the laws of Australia.
6.
NO school that receives public funds
should be permitted to practice discrimination on any basis.
Currently there is a refusal to come to terms with
two educational institutions which have diametrically opposed values in
relation to ‘equity’. This means that
the emerging issues paper offers many ‘problems’ but few answers.
DOGS note that, although the panel has limited terms
of reference and personnel, there is considerable rhetoric about equity and ‘needs’. There is
also concern about the persistent low
achievement evident in the proportion of students in the bottom proficiency
bands and the decline in reading
performance measured between 2000 and 2009. (the
PISA results).
The report assumes that there is no opposition to
the public funding of private sectarian education in Australia, although recent
polls on the issue and the DOGS suggest otherwise. The panel did not interview
or call for comment from the DOGS. However, if the panel does not wish to meet
with the DOGS, they can hear us on our 3CR radio program or read our Press
Release on the website www.adogs.info.
The DOGS never accepted the findings of the Karmel Committee Report of 1973, and predicted the current residualisation of students in the State school system in
Australia.
1.1.
Comparison
of the Emerging
Issues Paper with Karmel
Committee Report of 1973.
As with the Karmel Committee in
1973,
·
there is no biting of the essential State Aid bullet –
the elephant in the room.
·
There
is no comparison of underlying values of systems and institutions.
·
There
is no comparison of public and private or religious schools with their
diametrically opposed values. Quite the contrary. The emerging issues paper is
full of contradictions. There are various crucial paragraphs where
diametrically opposed positions are tabulated then presented as ‘not
necessarily inconsistent.’
·
The
citizen/taxpayer is expected to believe there are no opposing interests, no
inconsistencies- because the panel tells us so.
Unlike the Karmel
Committee Report of 1973
·
The
report has no philosophical, historical or even sociological basis. It is
mainly a record of issues raised by representatives of public and private
school interests through a series of selective consultations.
·
There
is a basic assumption that government and non-government schools are of equal
significance for the national good. This is not the case. If anything,
preference is given to the independent ‘free market’ paradigm.
·
There
is absolutely no reference to the simple fact that you cannot have equity in
education if you give preferential public funding, indeed any public
funding to systems of schools which by their very nature are private, exclusive
and select students on the basis of religion, ethnicity, ability to pay and
geographic location.
1.2 What the Emerging Issues Paper Fails to Mention
·
There
is no recognition that the public system is the only system which can lay any
claim to espousing the value of equity in education. It is the only system
which treats all children as equal, the only system which is open to all
children regardless of their religion, ethnicity, ability
to pay or geographic location.
·
On
the simple facts and figures of public subsidization of the private
sectarian/independent sector the silence on the figures relating to the indirect
funding of these ‘charitable’ institutions is deafening.
·
There
is only passing reference to the economic madness of the duplication of educational services many
times over of public facilities by sectarian institutions - at public expense,
and the running down and out of real public ‘choices’ in the process.
·
The
issue of ‘residualisation’ of the public system is
lost in verbiage. The word ‘residualisation’ is
re-defined to suit the private sector.
·
There
is absolutely no reference to the accountability scandals and lack of
transparency where sectarian schools have had ghost pupils, and ghost teachers.
Even the federal Auditor General was forced to expose the inadequacies inherent
in public funding of powerful private religious institutions in 2008-9. [1]
·
There
is no discussion of the rorting of the ‘needs’ policy
by the Catholic system. This has been exposed by the DOGS over the last forty
years of research, and publicized in newspaper advertisements.
·
Lack
of accountability and transparency in the sectarian sector is conveniently
ignored as the so-called independent system comes up smelling like roses in a
free market ideology. For the Review of Funding for Schooling panel, as for Karmel, only anaesthetised, ‘presentist’ prose is acceptable.
1.3 What the Panel has been Forced
to Note:
Nevertheless, the panel has been forced by thorough
research of public School representatives like Trevor Cobbold
to admit that all is not well. The present system of education funding ‘is
complex’. They noted on p. 6 that
Some were of the view that
the current funding arrangements were not balanced across the sectors,
contributing to a recent drift in enrolment numbers from the government school
sector to the non-government school sector.
In the next sentence however, they noted support for
the current arrangements which provide certainty of funding and the relative
generosity of private funding tied to government school costs from ‘others’.
1.4 A
Voucher System the Answer ?
According to the Financial
Review of Friday 17 December,
‘A voucher
system to guarantee each student in non-government schools a minimum level of
funding with extra support for those with special needs, is being considered by
the federal government’s review of education funding.’
What leads the reporter to
this conclusion?
There are two excerpts from the report which
supporters of public education should examine carefully. These quotes assume
that the current levels of public funding of a predatory private sector will be
quarantined and the residualisation or privatisation of
public education continue apace. DOGS quote from pp. 19-20 and 26.
The first quote deals with what the Financial Review quoted above noted as a
‘voucher system’. This seems to represent a replacement for the SES funding
model. There is some uncertainty in the context as to whether this includes
public as well as sectarian schools. The second quote refers to a ‘portable
funding’ voucher system for children with disabilities, similar to that
promoted by Mr. Abbott before the last federal election.
Quote Number One pp. 19 - 20:
‘…there was broad support
for the consideration of alternative funding arrangements based on a student’s
educational needs, regardless of the type of school they attend…Based on the
above views, the panel is of the view that there is clearly a need to look
further at a range of different funding options to see whether they might be
viable alternatives which could complement or improve on existing funding
arrangements. This could involve looking at, for example, approaches that would
specific a common funding amount for all students, with additional support
attached to students with greater educational needs. This type of approach was
put forward as a way of better targeting funding to schools and within schools
to support students. The panel would welcome comments on this issue.’
1.4.1. ‘Portable Funding’ for Students with Disability
The panel encountered a
variety of views on potential models for portable funding for students with
disability. Few supported a ‘pure’ voucher model, but many argued for a model
that shared characteristics of a ‘ voucher’ so that
all funding, or at least a proportion, should follow students with special
needs of a student with disability when they move schools.
So, there you have it. The Review of Funding for
Schooling is a blueprint for ‘more of the same,’ namely public funding of a
private sector in the jungle of the parental choice market place, with a few
crocodile tears for the children left behind and ‘ vouchers’ for parents to
shop around to find a sectarian school that might accept their child.
Meanwhile, the system that could solve all the
social and economic problems of our fragile democracy, the public system which
is accessible to all children, will once again be left to pick up a few crumbs
from the table of a religious system of private schools riding high on the
neo-liberal theology of ‘choice’ and middle class welfare at all costs.
1.4.2 Vouchers:
Another American Failure Imposed on Australian Education:
Vouchers have failed in America again and again. [2]However, it should be noted that this has
largely been because an organisation known as
Americans for Separation of Church and State has successfully challenged them
in the Supreme Court.
The total amounts
of taxpayer funding of the sectarian education sector have been based on
misinformation and inadequate statistics since 1964. The ordinary citizen could
see that this sector, even in 1964, favoured the wealthy and selected children
for the first class ticket to heaven and the good job. Fifty years later it is
a national scandal with the vast majority of children in public schools
suffering discrimination at every turn.
Trevor Cobbold and others should be congratulated for exposing the
statistical problem. But DOGS believe that the problem is much wider, deeper
and possibly insoluble. However well-intentioned the promoters of the a “Needs”
based funding
scheme might be, they are faced with an unholy Catholic/Protestant alliance
which believes that the poor are only worthy of the crumbs from the rich man’s
table. Education is not a charity. Sinners like homosexuals, divorcees and
single parents need not apply.
The only way to
solve the State Aid problem is to end it.
2.1 Media
Reaction to Glaring Inequities
The Sydney Fairfax
Press is finally giving some oxygen to the financial analysts who question private
religious school statistics.
Nobody is yet
prepared, as DOGS have done over the years, to point out that there has not
only been a refusal by governments and the private sector to recognise key
areas of public expenditures from the beginning of State Aid in 1964. At no
point has there been proper financial analysis of :
a.) The incremental costs
incurred by public school administrators burdened with the uneconomic sectors
of education.
Schools in remote areas, those with special language needs, indigenous students
and those with learning or physical disabilities receive additional funding.
Schools with a high number of refugees attract extra funding for intensive
language centres. The federal government is also providing additional funding
to public schools serving disadvantaged communities. The most costly government
schools are often small schools in remote areas. The global budget of public
school administrations also includes institutions such as libraries and
services available to the private sectarian sector.
Incremental costs are referred to in the NSW Department of Education and Training Discussion Paper: Australian
School Funding Arrangements at para 1.4 under the
heading The Unique Costs of Government Education..
DOGS quote:
When considering the
adequacy of school funds, the cost drivers that particularly impact on public
schooling are:
1)
Scale: Government schools are
required to be the ‘first in’and ‘last out of any
community and this legislative requirement for a large reach imposes its own
costs… [3]
2)
Selection: Government schools are
required to be available to all local students which can have a range of cost
impacts…a school cannot refuse enrolment to a student because of their greater
educational needs.
3)
Magnification of Cost Pressures: Cost
pressures faced by all schools can be magnified due to the universal provision
required of government systems. For example, teacher shortages…are most acute
in schools serving disadvantaged or isolated communities.
4)
Regulation: …it is only Government
schools…required by legislation to take students and there is little discretion
to refuse enrolment.
b) The user cost of capital,
payroll tax and subsidies for student transport costs. As a result, government
expenditure on government schools is over-estimated in comparison with
expenditure on private schools in official reports.
c.)The taxation expenditures involved in taxation exemptions for council rates, land
tax, stamp duty,
income tax, fringe benefits tax, GST, capital gains tax…name the
tax, and there are public expenditures.
Gaps in Information on Taxation Expenditure or Exemptions.
Education is not a charity.
Australian children have a RIGHT to educational opportunities of the highest
quality. This is the basis of public education funded by taxpayer funds.
Unfortunately the sectarian
sector, charging fees and placing religious tests on children, parents and
employees provides crumbs for the poor in the form of charity – namely
‘scholarships. This is done with ‘public money.’ Their philosophical basis is a
denial of all that our democratic society has
There is increasing concern in Australia about
the ‘purple economy’, namely the tens of billions of dollars in taxation
expenditures incurred by exemptions for so-called’ charitable’ institutions.
Not only is Australia lacking a Charities Commission comparable to that in the
UK, New Zealand and Canada. There is a deafening silence about this extraordinary burden on the taxpayer and the
implications it has for public subsidisation of the sectarian education sector.
In December 2007, with the
help of secular organisations and individuals, the Australian National Secular
Association (now ANZSA) published The Purple
Economy: Supernatural Charities, Tax and the State by Max Wallace This book
was mostly concerned with the history and politics of the tax exemption for
religion.
For the latest material on
this issue DOGS refer to the Secular Party submission to the Inquiry into the Tax
Laws Amendment (Public Benefit Test) Bill 2010 written by John Perkins and
Frank Gomez. It strives to detail the costs of tax expenditures for religion.
The total figure for exemptions enjoyed by sectarian education systems would be
a proportion, albeit a considerable proportion of this.
Charities are eligible for a
range of tax concessions, including refunds of imputation credits, income tax
exemptions and GST concessions. To be eligible for endorsement as a charity, an
organisation must be operated for public charitable purposes. Charitable
purposes are: the relief of poverty, sickness, or the needs of the aged; the
advancement ofeducation; the advancement of religion;
and other purposes beneficial to the community.
Section 116 of the
Australian Constitution states that the “Commonwealth shall not make any law
for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for
prohibiting the free exercise of any religion …” As a result of the 1981 High
Court decision on the Defence of Government Schools (DOGS) case, the public
funding of any or all religion and religious schools has been deemed
permissible under the constitution in spite of the fact that this was the
opposite of what the framers of the Constitution intended.
DOGS, along with the rest of
Australian citizens, believe that the majority judgement was a political rather
than a legal decision. It failed to take into account the intentions of the
Founding Fathers as evidenced by the Constitutional Debates and R.G. Ely in his
Unto God and Caesar ( MUP) 1976. The dissenting
judgement of Justice Lionel Murphy followed the
intention of the Founding Fathers, and stands for the future.
Australia is one of only
three countries in the world where even the commercial enterprises of religious
organisations are granted tax concessions. As to obtaining evidence regarding
the extent of the concessions that are available to religious organisations,
this is difficult, due to inadequacies in the disclosure regime. These bodies
are not required to report the breakdown of their charitable, business or
investment activities. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to
determine the actual cost of these exemptions.
John Perkins and Frank Gomez
however refer to some estimates of the value of these exemptions. These figures
were also provided in a previous submission in relation to the Treasury’s
review of taxation. They attempt to quantify the
magnitude of the revenues and concessions. An estimate of revenue and assets is
shown below.
Revenue and Assets of
Churches (2007 estimates)
·
Revenue of the 10 biggest churches $47.647 billion [4]
·
Estimated collections $2.760 billion [5]
·
Catholic Church Assets $150 billion [6]
·
Estimated other church assets $217.647 billion [7]
On the basis of these
estimates, Perkins and Gomez provide some estimates of the cost to taxpayers
and to governments of the concessions available to religious organisations.
Federally, these apply to:
·
income tax,
·
fringe benefits tax,
·
the goods and services tax.
·
Capital gains tax
State
government exemptions cover :
·
land tax,
·
payroll tax,
·
stamp duties and
·
car registration fees.
Local
governments provide exemptions from
·
municipal rates. Concessions may also be granted for some
·
water and power charges.
As the accounting practices
of sectarian institution are opaque, DOGS are unable to provide estimates for
all these items.
However we can provide
estimates for direct grants from government to sectarian institutions, which
are another significant cost to taxpayers. These estimates are given below.
Estimates of Cost to
Taxpayers
$ Million Notes
·
Income tax lost (at corporate rate ) $ 6.529 billion [8]
·
Capital Gains Tax Lost $6.529
billion [9]
·
Grants for family counselling $64 million [10]
·
Chaplains in schools programme $30 million [11]
·
Grants to religious schools (from commonwealth) $5.630 billion [12]
·
Grants to religious schools (from states) $1.8 billion [13]
·
Grants for abortion counselling 20 million [14]
·
Grant for interfaith convention Melbourne 2 million [15]
·
Grant for Catholic World Youth Day (state & federal) 140 million [16]
The above figures are
calculated from the funding to sectarian institutions in NSW and multiplied by
3 to estimate the total cost to Australian taxpayers
Further estimates of income
lost to state and local governments are given below. This financial information
suggests that religious organisations receive ample support via direct grants
for many of their activities.
Like Perkins and Gomez, DOGS
question whether local and state taxpayers should pay higher taxes and rates as
a result of extending exemptions to organisations that are already subsidised
through direct government expenditure.
Income Lost to State and
Local Governments
·
Payroll tax exemptions $473 million [17]
·
Stamp duty exemptions $418 million [18]
·
Land tax exemptions $139 million [19]
·
Rate income lost to councils $ 610 million [20]
Combining the above costs to
Australian taxpayers, it can be seen that an estimate of the total cost of
concessions to religious organisations in Australia exceeds $31 billion. This
is a gross figure and speculative, but informative nevertheless.
However it does not include
items such as FBT and GST where taxpayers are unable to source data on the
value of concessions. But the figure gives some idea of the magnitude of the
cost of concessions which arise as a result of the continued adherence to the
medieval doctrine of charitable organisations.
More accurate estimates of
this kind could be obtained if the information was available, but it is not.
It is standard budgetary
procedure that the loss of revenue arising from
exemptions, for example those applying to superannuation pensions, to be listed
in budget papers. They can be quantified. It is anomalous that no such
requirement exists for religious organisations, even those that may be involved
in significant business and investment related activities.
Further anomalies occur in
relation to the application of the Fringe Benefits Tax and the Goods and
Services Tax. As the FBT is exempt to employees who are religious
practitioners, eligible employers can provide remuneration packages that are
biased substantially in terms of fringe benefits, thereby avoiding any income
tax. This device can also create an unwarranted entitlement to social security
benefits.
From the above it can be
very roughly estimated that the taxation expenditures or exemptions on the
assets and income of major religious organisations, including their educational
enterprises constitute billions of dollars. It can only be a matter of great
concern to citizens and taxpayers that there has to date been no mention of
these expenditures in estimation of funding costs of private sectarian
education in Australia.
It is to be hoped that the Gonski Committee will make some attempt address these
financial issues in a candid and direct manner.
It is one thing for
the opposing parties to trade statistics.
But now official
figures themselves are at variance.
As Trevor Cobbold from Save our Schools
points out, recent estimates of government expenditure on
private schools published by the Productivity Commission in its Report on
Government Services (RGS) are inconsistent with other official figures, in
particular, the National Report on
Schooling (NRS) published by the national education ministers’ council. The
inconsistencies need explanation as they are creating confusion in public
debate about trends in school funding.
The Productivity
Commission’s figures show a much lower increase in government funding for private
schools than for government schools in recent years while other official
figures show that government funding for private schools has increased by much
more than for government schools.
The Productivity
Commission states that total Commonwealth and state/territory government
expenditure on private schools fell in real terms (that is, adjusted for
inflation) by $462 per student between 2004-05 and 2008-09 while government
expenditure on government schools increased by $623 per student. In current dollar
terms, they claim that
expenditure on government schools increased by $2,829 per student
(or 26%) while expenditure on private schools increased by only $796 per
student (13%).
This increase for
private schools is much less than the annual indexation provided to private
schools under the SES funding model. It is also much less than the increase
shown in the National Report on Schooling (NRS) published by the national
education ministers’ council.
The productivity
Commission does not take into account the incremental costs in the government
sector, let alone the user cost of capital, subsidies and taxation exemptions
allowed to the private sectarian sector.
Meanwhile, the
sectarian sector, particularly spokesmen representing the independent sector
are using the Productivity Commission figures and peddling the ideology of
‘choice’ and other thinly veiled arguments for insecure, aspirational and
competitive parents. ( See Geoff Newcombe quoted by Anna Patty in the Sydney Morning Herald of February 14,
2011.)
As the lid opens on
the gross inequities in Australian Education created by the funding of
sectarian education over the last fifty years, the Catholic Hierarchy are
strangely silent. Are they embarrassed when they turn to the Genesis story of
the Creation in which God created man – and woman – in his own image and
therefore equal? Or are they merely following the usual tactic of lobbying in
the corridors of power.
There has been an
outrageous lack of accountability and
transparency for the billions of dollars of public money channelled into
church coffers over the last fifty years. The ‘Needs’policty of the Schools Commission was misused by the
Catholic system of Education from the beginning. There has always been
and still is limited corroboration of enrolment data provided by the sectarian sector and even less
enforcement of accountability. These
allegations can be evidenced by DOGS Advertisements and News Releases over the
last forty years and a report by the Commonwealth Auditor General on public
funding of non-government schools published in June 2009. [21]
Evidence
of the misuse of the Needs policy was placed on record in paid Advertisements
such as the following: The Age: 12 November 1970; 27 November , 1972, 4; 16 May 1973, 10; 12 July 1973, 14; 12 December 1975, 12 ; 23
June 1977, 16; 2 December 1977; 5 December, 1977, 12; 3 May 1984, 18; 28
November 1984, 20; 1 May 1985; 30 August 1988, 22-23; 2 March 1998, 11; April
26, 2005; 27 March 2006; The Herald: 1 December 1972, 11; 11 December 1975, 38; The Australian : 10 December 1975, 5;19 July 1985, 7; Canberra Times:
18 December 1980; 4 November 1983,11; 6 April 1984, 9. Advertisements since
this time did not deal with the Schools Commission.
Recent News
Releases which dealt with ghost pupils, ghost schools the checking of each
school’s enrolment accuracy every 50 years and the report of the Commonwealth
Auditor General are:
Press Release 246
at www.adogs.info/pr246.htm,
Press Release 256
at www.adogs.info/pr256.htm
Press Release 270 at www.adogs.info/pr270.htm.
The evidence
gathered by the DOGS over the last 40 years amounts to a national scandal.
Figures published by the Australian Council for
Educational Research show that 50 per cent of students in Independent secondary
schools and 30 per cent of students in Catholic secondary schools in 2009 were
from families in the highest socio-economic quartile compared to 16 per cent of
students in government secondary schools. On the other hand, only 10 per cent
of students in Independent schools and 16 per cent of Catholic students are
from families in the lowest quartile compared to 35 per cent of government
school students.
This social segregation is the direct result
government funding policies which give priority to choice rather than reducing
inequity in education. Government funding policies have given preference to
private schools and pushed more and more higher income
families into private schools.
As a result, society is
becoming increasingly fragmented where people of different social backgrounds
and religions are educated separately rather than together. This is hardly
conducive to improving social understanding, tolerance and cohesion.
The Australian
situation is exacerbated by the fact that discrimination on the basis of
religion, marital status and sexual preference not to mention political
preference and ability to pay is practiced against both the parents of children and
employees of sectarian schools.
In this Australia
is far behind the United Kingdom which demands that faith schools have open
enrolment policies as a condition of public funding.
The DOGS
demand the withdrawal of all taxpayer funding of sectarian educational systems
and/or schools which demand and receive exemptions from anti-discrimination
laws on the basis of:
·
ethnicity
·
religious background
·
sexual preference
·
marital status
·
disability
·
or ability to pay
The DOGS also
believe that public funding should not be allocated to sectarian educational
systems and/or schools which engage in discrimination in employment practices,
particularly with respect to:
·
gender
·
ethnicity
·
religious background or belief
·
sexual preference
·
disability
·
or marital status.
The DOGS
demand that the allocations of all taxpayer funding be conditional on the
removal of all exemptions from the Anti- discrimination Act for sectarian
educational systems and schools.
Defence of Government Schools Recommendations:
·
Public moneys should not be
given to sectarian institutions for the purpose of education.
·
If Public money IS given to
sectarian institutions the exact amounts of both direct and indirect grants
along with revenue forgone must be made accessible to all citizens and
taxpayers.
·
If public money IS given to
sectarian institutions then those institutions must be accountable for every
cent.
·
If public money IS given to
sectarian institutions for the purpose of education then a proper oversight of
all aspects (eg enrolments) must be undertaken.
·
NO public money should be
allocated to any institution that requires, demands or
receives any special exemption from the laws of Australia.
·
Any school that receives
public funds should not be permitted to practice discrimination on any basis
whatsoever.
Listen to the DOGS program
3CR, 855 on
the A.M. dial
12 Noon
Saturdays
[1] See Page 15 of this submission
[2]
See Save our Schools Media Release,
‘Another Nail in the School Voucher Coffin,
April 1, 2011 www.saveourschools.com.au
[3]
DOGS note that in development areas in Victoria this is not always the case.
For example in Mernda, Victoria, there are three sectarian secondary schools
and an application for a Muslim Shia school P-12 in the area, but, as yet, no
public secondary school and only one small public primary school sharing
facilities with a Catholic school.
[4]
2005 information from BRW article “God’s Business, June 2006 plus 20%
[5]
10% of estimated Catholic Church revenue
[6]
2005 information from BRW article “God’s Business, June 2006 plus 50%
[7]
Assumes Catholic assets same ratio of total (40.8%) as of revenue
[8]
30% of estimates revenue
[9]
Assumes 10% realised CG from asset holdings, property plus shares.
[10]
2005/06 budget forward estimates
[11]
One third of $90 million announced over three years
[12]
2007
Budget Papers (90% of total non-govt funding of $6.256 billion)
[13]
SMH article as above estimate of NSW funding x 3
[14]
Media Releases
[15]
2007 Budget papers
[16]
Govt Media plus Budget Papers
[17]
Based on Treasury figures x 3 for the whole country
[18]
Pro-rated on above
[19]
Pro-rated on above
[20]
Pro-rated on above against Association of Councils source
[21]
Auditor-General Audit Report No 45 2008-9 Performance Audit, Funding for
Non-Government Schools