Random Note #198,583 — Education funding
Interesting to see all the papers talking up the education reforms as a big win. Politically perhaps but as we’ve seen over the last fifteen or twenty years, unless the basics are addressed, i.e. teacher quality and the curriculum, nothing will change and we’ll still get our arse handed to us on a plate by Kazakhstan.
Basically what’s happened is that education, like so many other of the “our children and our children’s children” type issues have become an emotional political wedge.
Many particularly, but not exclusively, on the Green/Teachers Union/Left, see everything through the prism of the old social class struggle. Bosses vs workers. Capitalism vs socialism. It’s all about money. To these simple, feeble, minds money will solve all the problems.
In education “the science is settled” to borrow a phrase and we know, after decades of bitter experience, for that not to be the case but they continue on undaunted. Just put more money on the table and that will fix the problem/s.
As Oscar Wilde mused in another context, “they know the price of everything but the value of nothing”.
As important as money is there are some things that money just can’t buy. The logic seems to be that of seeing the successful businessman driving a flash car. That’s all they see. They don’t metaphorically look under the bonnet to see how he came to be driving the flash car. Chances are that it was through work and application.
With education it’s not just teacher quality, class sizes and the facilities but also the home life and the parental examples. That’s not the problem of other taxpayers.
It used to be, so the activist experts told us that smaller class sizes and one on one teaching would be the answer. Class sizes of the 1950’s and 60’s were up in the mid 40’s but somehow the results were up with worlds best practice, to coin a cliche.
Then the activist experts told us that it was the curriculum that needed fixing and set about tinkering and replacing the likes of phonics with whole word. Now we have kids coming through after twelve years of taxpayer funded education requiring remedial lessons at university because they’re functionally illiterate, innumerate or both.
Here’s a hint as to what’s going on.
Before Joan Kirner was Premier of Victoria she was Education Minister. In a talk to the Fabian Society, Kirner argued that,
“..the education system had to be radically reshaped so that it was “part of the socialist struggle for equality, participation and social change rather than an instrument of the capitalist system..”
Then there was this giveaway nugget from the ABC web site in 2008 —
“A major task for Leftist activist academics is to connect education with community struggles for social justice,” says Dr Gregory Martin.
Martin was a lecturer in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus. Martin was also a member of the militant National Teachers Education Union and the Gold Coast branch of the radical Marxist group, Socialist Alliance sees education as a channel for conducting a Marxist revolution.
It’s not likely to happen but there’s a lot to be said for education vouchers whereby the government gives the money for their child or children directly to the parents by way of an education voucher allowing the parents to shop around for the public school of their choice and if they want to go private they then tip in the extra.
Two additional points on education funding.
First we are seeing a conflict between the Government saying that it is giving more funds to Catholic schools while parents from Catholic schools are mobilised into campaigning that Catholic schools are getting less funding. True, if all the parents whose children are enrolled in Catholic schools suddenly withdraw their children and enroll their children at the local state school it would be a false economy in saving taxpayers’ money. The fight for taxpayer subsidization of Catholic schools was exemplified in a small way when the Bishop of Goulburn closed six Catholic schools on the 13th July 1962. Two thousand students rocked up to the local state schools for the available 640 vacancies. Sources http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/the-lessons-of-goulburn-resonate-in-schools-50-years-later-20120820-24ik2.html and http://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/130200/a-strike-changed-it-all/ . It was a very valid argument that Catholic parents are taxpayers too.
Then if the government says that it’s giving more while the Catholic parents say that their school is getting less, who do you believe? I believe that the government is correct, but at the same time, the administrators of Catholic schools have to better manage taxpayer money particularly its administration costs. To illustrate, I went to a small Catholic primary school. The administration of the small Catholic primary school was conducted by a part-time secretary who also handled and processed the school fee invoices. Today the same primary school that I attended has its four classrooms converted for administration purposes. If the top administrators of the Catholic schools trimmed their own administration budget, then the allocated taxpayer resources could well be directed to teachers and other resources other than administrative costs.
Second point on the voucher system. The government issues a ‘voucher’ for each school-aged child and the parent can redeem the voucher at any school and pay any additional topup if the child is enrolled at a private school. It’s portable and convenient. Each school will be given an equal amount of money by the taxpayer. However this assumes that all schools whether private or public are equal when they’re not. The funding system under the voucher is not needs based. Thus imputing market-based allocation of taxpayer money to education may result in market failure. Aside from the quality of teachers debate, there may be schools with many students who need extra ‘attention’ in class and the ‘fixed’ allocation via the voucher system for a school may not be enough. This is unless the voucher system is flexible to allow for supplementary funding.
Then we don’t know whether home-schooled children can redeem the voucher for cash which could be used to buy textbooks, stationery and computers.
In sum, Catholic school administrators could do well in looking at its own backyard in regards to its administration costs and the voucher system for funding needs further investigation in regards to additional funding where the voucher is not sufficient.
Keep in mind, whether taxpayer funding for education is via the current system or a voucher system, recall the Goulburn incident of 1962. It’s a false economy to allocate government funding only to state schools and putting private education beyond the reach of the ordinary worker. This would result in a greater burden to the taxpayer.
Regards
Anthony of Belfield