Time for Labor to act

By Maree O’Halloran

The Public Education Alliance, comprising the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations, principal organisations and Federation, has called on Federal Opposition leader Mark Latham to forgo piecemeal statements about education.

It's time for Labor to cease giving comfort to the private school lobbyists and release a comprehensive plan to support and properly fund public education. The Howard Government has released its new quadrennial funding plan which, without compunction, once again deliberately favours private schools. Now is the time for the alternative government to release a plan which provides:

• a priority commitment to public education
• a significant increase in funding to public education
• a redistribution of funds from private schools to public schools; and
• the defeat of the States Grants Act.

The Premiers' departments are also seeking to make their mark on Federal ALP policy development, advocating a voucher system and the integration of the public and private systems. Federal Labor must clearly disavow these weary and dangerous ideas. Such ideas are the end point of government policy which has deliberately sought to blur the boundaries between public and private schools. We already live in a world of publicly-funded private schools and privately financed public schools. However, public does matter.

The integration of public and private schools into one system will not remove 'artificial' barriers between schools. Rather it will destroy the concept of public education as qualitatively different to private education. Public schools are open to all Australian children, private schools are not. An integrated system hides from public view the disparities between advantage and resources available to different children.

Of increasing concern is the resounding silence from Mark Latham and the ALP about resourcing public education. At the ALP National Conference on January 9, Mark Latham said: "There is no more powerful institution in our society than a good government school." Where is the substance to match this rhetoric? To date Labor has done nothing more than give comfort to the private school lobby.

On March 26 the Opposition Leader promised, at William Carey Christian School, not to reduce total funding to private schools. Instead Labor would redistribute the funds to low-fee paying private schools.

Public schools are the choice of almost 70 per cent of Australian children and parents, yet they operate with lower resource levels than the vast majority of private schools, including low-fee paying religious schools. One possible result of Latham's announcement is that some private schools would be operating with more total government funds than their neighbouring public schools. The spectre of such a disgraceful scenario can only be dispelled by the release of ALP policy showing a massive injection of funds to the public sector.

If the actions of the state and territory education ministers during the latest discussions with Federal Education Minister Dr Brendan Nelson on April 23 are any guide, it seems that state Labor may be letting federal Labor off the hook and selling our public schools short. While the debate on schools' funding initiated by the NSW Minister, Dr Andrew Refshauge, was welcome, the state ministers concern about the underfunding of the public system can't help but ring hollow when we know that state Labor governments have also underfunded our schools.

The state and territory education ministers demanded of the Federal Government that all public school students be given the same level of funding as that going to the richest private schools. While this demand had the advantage of highlighting the obscenity of the federal funding system, it should have remained a debating point alone. The 'demand' amounts to no more than an extra $750 million a year nationwide for government schools. This is far too low a benchmark for Labor.

The 2004 Productivity Report on Government Services shows that in 2001/2002, before the greatest increases to private schools, the Howard Government directly spent $2696 extra on a private school student than a public school student. A more appropriate benchmark is to at least give public school students the same. Under this demand, NSW public schools would receive an additional $2 billion per annum. Such funding would translate to more teachers, smaller classes and better facilities.

The resource demands currently being prepared in each public school will be instrumental in lobbying Labor to meet the benchmark.

While we advocate for our schools and students, we can have confidence that our message is strongly supported. ACNielsen polling April 23-25 shows that 86 per cent of respondents agree that the Federal Government needs to invest more in public education, with 60 per cent strongly agreeing.

Public Education Day on May 20 is an opportunity to celebrate public schools as a 'powerful institution' able to generate transformational change. The day also invites the community to be involved in the public education campaign. Our message to the public will be supported by TV, radio and billboard advertising.

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