Secret report shows private school funding hurts poorer students
01 February 2012
The AEU has welcomed a secret academic report that confirms the need to overhaul school funding, claiming current arrangements increase inequality and fail to deliver the resources that public schools need.
The University of Melbourne research, leaked to The Australian, says government funding of private schools has failed to lift standards for disadvantaged students and has further entrenched disadvantage in our community.
Governments are spending billions to help private schools to recruit students from wealthier backgrounds, the report says, rather than enabling schools to address the complex education needs of students from poorly educated homes.
"They can't create the teaching conditions, the learning conditions, that are really needed to lift standards to a high level, and they don't have those resources because we have already spent those resources promoting choice for middle class families," the report's author, Professor Teese, told the ABC this morning.
AEU federal president Angelo Gavrielatos says the report shows beyond any doubt that the current funding system in Australia is contributing to a deepening inequality in the attainment of educational outcomes.
"The report has found that public schools are being starved of the funding needed to ensure every child receives a high-quality education," he says.
“An analysis of enrolment patterns over a 20-year period shows that public schools continue to educate the overwhelming majority of students with higher educational needs. There has been no increase in the share of students in private schools in low SES areas."
In an interview on ABC radio this morning, Professor Teese argued that schools catering for disadvantaged students should have "much bigger budgets" than those in wealthier areas.
“What we must have as a nation are funding arrangements that help schools to ensure that all children achieve their full potential, regardless of their background," his report concludes. "This can only be done by ensuring there are public schools of the highest quality, in every
community."
State governments commissioned the research as a submission to the Federal Government's review of schools funding, headed by businessman David Gonski. The Government received the Gonski report in December and is expected to release it and an initial response towards the end of this month.
