AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
PRESS RELEASE 571#
YOU CAN’T FOOL ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME.
MIDDLE CLASS CITIZENS RETURNING TO PUBLIC EDUCATION
The self- styled elite in Australian education got it wrong. Mr Menzies tried to keep their jobs- for – the- boys network intact by giving State Aid in 1964. But what price the insecure ticket to heaven and the good job?
Can members of the insecure middle class afford school fees that amount to the cost of another house on top of the mortgage they have incurred for the ‘right ’suburb? And can they afford to lose the house they possess if the elite private school comes debt collecting for fees unpaid?
Suddenly, a fee-free excellent public education becomes attractive!
Australia’s elite private schools have spent taxpayer billions on an educational arms race, leeching money out of public systems of education and building ever more luxurious facilities. Even the mythical ‘poor parish schools’have disappeared. But private/religious schools are parasitical in nature. They can never be as efficient, effective and accountable as a good public system of education. Not unsurprisingly, during the last decade Australia’s elite private schools have lost 100,000 students and $1.2 billion in revenue to cheaper Catholic and private – and Praise the Lord! – PUBLIC schools. They are being forced to ‘discount’ their fees.
Why?
As DOGS pointed out in 2007-8, the Global Financial Crisis focussed the minds of the insecure middle class on their shaky budgets. They looked at public transport, moved to the inner city, and incurred substantial mortgages. Then, as the children arrived they opted for fee-free public schooling. New South Wales and Sydney inner city parents started the trend, but Melbourne is not far behind as skyscraper apartment blocks rise into the sky. Even the Weekend Australian of 11-12 October is warning their Coalition friends of the development with a front page article by Natasha Beta: Power to Choose: parents adopt new school of thought. They quote from of all things, a Catholic school teacher, Elizabeth Blaher. DOGS quote: Melbourne private school teacher Elizabeth Blaher bought a house close to McKinnon Secondary College so her son would be guaranteed a place in the high-performing government school. She transferred her daughter Emily from a nearby Catholic girls school this year- saving the family $10,000 in private fees…we have some outstanding public schools in Melbourne that rival the performance of any private school,’ she said.
To which DOGS can only say : AMEN
Further reading: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/07/choice-schools-children-parents-admissions-selection
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