Press Releases

The Reality and the Rhetoric Behind Educational Inequality

Press Release 670

Most of the commentary and debate in mainstream think tanks, interest groups, and political debates circle around the issue of growing educational inequalities.

The effects of inequalities, - if any are acknowledged - will have upon the national economy take centre stage. The political elite are waking up to the fact that their ‘globalisation’ ‘trickle down’ rhetoric has not convinced vast swathes of disadvantaged, disaffected voters. Hence the Brexit, Trump, and ‘Independents in the Senate’ phenomenon. As the wealthy avoid tax, the middle classes are hollowed out, the poor fall further into poverty and homelessness, and the ‘economy’, our democracy, and our children suffer. Educational deprivation and the running down of public education is part of a much bigger picture.
Academics, think tank commentariats, and politicians happily get bogged down in “To fund, or not to fund” debates.
Nobody is prepared to be politically incorrect and take on the ‘poor parish school’ myth perpetuated by the religious lobby. They seem incapable of working out why our nineteenth century forebears centralised public education, stopped State Aid and increased equality of opportunity.

The Report of the Inquiry into the Independent Public Schools initiative - The Failure of the “Independent Public School “

Press Release 668

o be Fair and Equal, Public Education requires a Centralised Administration.

In the nineteenth century, public education only succeeded in all colonial States of Australia because the administrators of the various systems of education realised that

they could only educate ALL the children and
protect and train ALL the teachers and
offer a career structure to teachers, headmasters and inspectors and finally,
have an accountable, efficient and effective administraton and
be the only recipients of public moneys.

if they CENTRALISED their administration.

Freeman Butts recognised this when he visited Australia in the 1950s and compared our superior system to that in America and England.

On the other side of the coin, the wealthy, and promotors of privatisation - the religious education systems - not only demanded privileged access to the public Treasury. They continually criticised ‘centralisation’. They have systematically undermined, and in some cases, taken over the centralised bureaucracies. Victoria has suffered badly from the ‘devolution’ fad. But the latest attempt to privatise public education is the idea of a fully devolved system, with ‘Independent’ public schools. But the Western Australian ‘experiment’ has failed the ‘student outcomes’ test.

Public education is up for Sale - From the U.K. to Liberia, to the US and Australia, the school privatization movement gathers steam.

Press Release 667

For the past three decades, critics of public education in the United States have assailed it and used its flaws to promote publicly funded privatization. Corporate and political interests have attacked the very concept of public education, claiming that the private sector is invariably superior to the public sector.
In the U.K., the Conservative Party government wants to turn all public schools into private academies, funded by taxpayers. The British multinational corporation Pearson has ambitions to open for-profit schools using its products in many nations across the world. In Africa, a corporation called Bridge International Academies (BIA) is opening for-profit schools in poor countries that cost $1 a week. Liberia is considering outsourcing its entire elementary program to BIA, which is funded by American billionaires Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and others from Wall Street.These developments are by no means limited to the U.S.; the same movement to privatize public schools is occurring in the United Kingdom, Australia, Africa and other regions – with troubling implications.

Letter from City School 4 City Kids

Press Release 666

                               AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT

SCHOOLS

 

PRESS RELEASE 666#

 

LETTER FROM CITY SCHOOL 4 CITY KIDS

 

School Overcrowding Tipping Point- Let's Build a City School

Donvale Youth Detention Centre: A Lid Pulled off only One Stinking Garbage Bin

Press Release 664

                                              AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF GOVERNMENT

SCHOOLS

 

PRESS RELEASE 664#

 

DONVALE YOUTH DETENTION CENTRE:

A LID PULLED OFF ONLY ONE STINKING GARBAGE TIN.

 

DOGS Googled Don Dale Youth Detention Centre

 

New Catholic School given Preference over new Public School in Ballarat, Victoria

Press Release 663

Victorian children can no longer regard a public education in a public school as their right. The Victorian Lib-Lab governments, along with their federal counterparts, have provided preferential funding of religious schools to the severe detriment of proper public provision. Now, in of all places, Ballarat - the Catholic church is rewarded for shocking behaviour with a new school while public schools are overcrowded.

New Catholic School given Preference over new Public School in Ballarat, Victoria

Press Release 663

Victorian children can no longer regard a public education in a public school as their right. The Victorian Lib-Lab governments, along with their federal counterparts, have provided preferential funding of religious schools to the severe detriment of proper public provision. Now, in of all places, Ballarat - the Catholic church is rewarded for shocking behaviour with a new school while public schools are overcrowded.

What does the Election result mean for Public Education ?

Press Release 662

Mr Turnbull has scraped home and is announcing this as a mandate for the Coalition budget and policies. But, given a slim majority, the cross bench and adverse Senate, has he won an election or been given a poison chalice ?
Australian citizens wandered further and further away from the major parties. Why? Have they rejected the neo-liberal mess created by three decades of lib-lab governments?
DOGS note that while the political group – the DLP - that initiated State Aid in the 1960s, together with their offspring, are in political disarray, and while the more public education friendly Labor Party and green senators have strong representation in the House of Representatives and hold the balance of power in the Senate, the outlook for public education is not as bleak as it might seem.