AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT
SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 837
PRIVATE SCHOOLS GOING THE WAY OF VIRGIN AIRLINES?
The plague has unearthed the faulty business plans and risk taking at public expense, not only of Virgin Airlines, but of the private education sector in Australia.
Given its $100 billion bank bailout for three years at 0.25% interest, the Reserve Bank appears to be predicting a prolonged and deep depression. So, the private market sector is screaming for ever more taxpayer funds.
Since emotional blackmail has always been the modus operandi of the private education sector, they are using one major argument that is geared to gain them access to the Federal Governments jobkeeper billions: making teachers redundant.
It will be very interesting to see whether our born again Keynesians in Canberra are prepared to bail these failed businesses out – again – or whether private schools that discriminate against children are more ‘essential’ than a second, competitive national airline. Perhaps our government, if they genuinely believe in the national interest, may finally realise that education ‘essential services’ lie with the public sector. As private school children turn up at the free secular and universal system, even if that is online, any taxpayer funding available should follow those children and their teachers into the ‘essential service’ system.
DOGS note that the government is on shaky ground. In a poll taken by the Age on a report on their lobbying, 76% voted against any further bailouts to private schools. The vast majority of comments were very antagonistic to the idea.
As one reader, who called himself Lord Reg said:
Yeah? Nah!
Madeleine Heffernan from the Age in her April 22 2020article , ‘Private Schools seek Taxpayer Bailout to stave off job cuts’ on private school lobbying reported:
Trevor Cobbold, national convenor of government-school lobby group Save our Schools, described non-government schools' request for emergency funding as opportunistic.
“It is incredible how often private school organisations will resort to any opportunity to gouge more money out of the taxpayer – drought, fires and now COVID-19,” Mr Cobbold said.
“Private school systems have billions in assets to provide security for loans to fund their operations. The Catholic school system has the massive wealth of the Catholic Church behind it to keep operating. They should postpone their multi-million dollar building plans to support their teachers.”
With Victoria’s one million students largely learning from home this term, private schools have also been inundated with requests for fee cuts to compensate for students not having access to school grounds and extra-curricular activities.
The plague has opened up a Pandora’s box of ideological proportions.
- How private is private when the public pay for it – again, and yet again ?
- Why should taxpayers fund again and again, failed business enterprises?
- Should our children and teachers be at the mercy of private enterprise and the market laid up in heaven?
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