AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

 

PRESS RELEASE 612#

OUR PUBLIC SYSTEMS NEED STRONG CENTRALISED

ADMINISTRATIONS TO SAVE THEM FROM PRIVATISATION

The public school systems in Australia have been successful in educating the majority of the children of Australia for a vibrant, egalitarian democracy because:

1.     They centralised their administration in the nineteenth century to

2.     Extend material resources over wide geographical areas

3.     Train, pay and protect teachers and principals and update curricula

4.     Educate ALL the children and provide opportunities to ALL children

These systems were above all protected from private, religious systems by the withdrawal of State Aid to these parasitic institutions in the years 1880-1964.

Since 1964, with the giving of State Aid to private religious systems, which educate the few in peculiar tenets, at the expense of the majority , our public systems have been denied sufficient resources and decentralised. Teachers and principals are left to fend for themselves under a privatisation model.  

The result – glaring inequalities in both our education society.

DOGS say: Wrong, way. Go back. Strengthen our public systems with strong, centralised administrations answerable to a responsible Minister, with open, transparent financial reporting. Anything else leads to inequalities, privatisation, mismanagement of public funds, and corruption. We have been warned by the findings of Gonski and the Victorian Education Department IBAC enquiry. See http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/government-it/ultranet-shares-and-jobs-scandal-snares-victorias-education-department-20141111-11kk3l.html

And we should learn from the outrageous mess being visited upon the United Kingdom by the current Conservative government with their failed ‘academies experiment: In that country, instead of taking responsibility for ALL children, their government permits elites to divide their children into ‘independent’ schools and then expects them to ‘sponsor’ so-called private academies for the poor. History and logic prove that the wealthy have NEVER been prepared to tax themselves or give up their children’s opportunities to the poor. State schools catering for ‘the poor’ are labelled ‘failed schools, by inspectors from OFSTED and left to the tender mercies of ‘sponsors’.Not unsurprisingly, the privatisation experiment is failing and teachers, principals, and students are suffering –grievously. Consider the following reports from the Guardian on this privatisation fiasco.  See http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/jun/05/failing-schools-obstacles-conversion-academy-statusNews in brief and http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/18/private-schools-academies-independent-dna-wellington-college

 

 

LISTEN TO DOGS PROGRAM

ON 3CR

855 ON THE AM DIAL: 12.00 NOON  SATURDAYS For Podcast go to http://www.3cr.org.au/podcasts/podcasts/list and go to DOGS