Press Releases

Separation of Church and State: Is the Wall Crumbling? Edd Doerr's column‏ in America

Press Release 594

God, Schools, and Government Funding by Laurence H. Winer and Nina J. Crimm. Ashgate, 2015, 281 pp, $119.95.

Winer and Crimm trace in meticulous detail, with over a thousand footnotes, the evolution (or devolution) of the Supreme Court’s rulings on every conceivable angle for diverting public funds to special interest faith-based private schools, a very gradual process at first but one that has accelerated in recent years to the point where today the financial wall of separation may be crumbling to pieces. While this book was written by law professors for law professors and law students (hence the high list price), the basic text is readily accessible to all readers. The authors analyze school vouchers, various forms of tax credit aid, and the latest gimmick, Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) and their variants, and then disect how the High Court has not only whittled away at separation but also undermined the “standing” rights of citizens and taxpayers to even bring challenges to church-state separation violation in the courthouse door.

University Entry for Sale: The Strange Case of SCOTS College Sydney

Press Release 593

When the market takes over in educational services, Australia is plummeted back into the bad old days of the C18, - before a meritocracy, let alone a democracy. Forget about education for all, or even education for the academically able. In the market place all that matters is the parental bank balance and cold hard cash.

This became obvious in Sydney after it was revealed that Scots College boys bypassed the HSC and studied a 17-week diploma to gain access to the University of Sydney. Boys from the elite college are the only school students in the state to benefit from a pilot of the Diploma of Tertiary Preparation, which is aimed at teenagers with predictive tertiary admissions ranks of between 55 and 70 per cent.

When will Christian Churches avoid Hypocrisy and Promote Open Enrolment Policy and Universality – namely Public Education ?

Press Release 592

In England a broadly based group of Church of England clerics and laity are troubled by the abuse of their Church schools’ admissions policy in favour of advantaged families. They are prepared to say:

Ultimately the universality of the Church is being turned to the advantage of those who are already advantaged. We believe this issue presents a slow-burning crisis.

State Aid Debate Alive and Well in Victoria

Press Release 590

Education Minister Merlino and Premier Daniel Andrews are confronted with a public education lobby that is very annoyed at his pandering to the private system, betraying the principles of the Gonski funding reforms . They are outraged that the government's first major legislative act on education passed Parliament last month, enshrining in law a guarantee for private schools to get at least 25 per cent of the funding the state gives to public schools.

Fiji is more constitutionally democratic than NZ or, in practice Australia

Press Release 589

by Max Wallace, WRITING FOR LA RAISON MAGAZINE

It is paradoxical that Fiji is more constitutionally democratic than New Zealand. (or Australia)

Firstly, what I mean is that no New Zealand-born citizen can hold the office of head of state. That status and power is retained in New Zealand by the hereditary British monarch who is simultaneously the Supreme Governor of the Church of England in England.

Fiji, by contrast,  has a citizen as head of state, the president, appointed by the Parliament.

What kind of Society do we want? A Market Place with Dog eat Dog or a Democratic Community

Press Release 586

The current public/private debate appears to centre around economic and market ideological issues with facts flying hither and thither. Since the stark economic facts are now favouring the public education side of the debate- private schools are more and more expensive on the public purse for less and less returns- the private interests are forced back onto dogmatic market ideology.

Both ignore the simple question:

What kind of a society do we want our children to inherit?