Whose Trojan Horse?

By Maree O’Halloran

The reprise of the Vinson Report through the Department's "Futures Project" offers the best hope to maintain a positive future for public education.

The confluence of a new Director-General, a Minister rumoured to be retiring, a Premier looking for a 4th-term victory and the Howard Government's tying of funding to local autonomy makes the "Futures Project" a sinister one that must be exposed and combated quickly.

Designed as a Trojan Horse to introduce autonomous schools including local selection of staff and performance pay, the Futures Project can be the vehicle by which we re-establish the Vinson Plan in the public domain. Centrally, Federation will pursue this objective by requesting Professor Vinson's public involvement. Locally, we also need each school and TAFE college to prepare their submissions to the Futures Project consultation, based on, or at least supplemented by, the material to be provided by Federation.

Federation's central submission will emphasise the advantages of and governments' responsibility to the public education system as a whole.

Whether by design or a lack of understanding, the Department has chosen the busiest time of the academic year to introduce the Futures project. The Director-General has also incorrectly described the project as the largest, widespread consultation process about public education. In fact, two years ago Professor Vinson and his research team were commissioned by the Federation and the P&C to undertake a similar widespread consultation process. The Independent Vinson Inquiry had logistical and financial (rental accommodation) support from the Department. The team held 27 public hearings, visited more than 150 local schools and TAFE colleges and took nearly 800 submissions. They also commissioned independent research. The result was a 10-year plan for the future of public education and a 300-page report published by Pluto Press. Federation has provided every public library in NSW, including municipal libraries, with a copy of the report.

The Vinson Inquiry was widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive inquiry into public education since the Wyndham Review in the 1950s. It was the catalyst in 2002/2003 for the Coalition and the ALP to promise smaller class sizes in K-2 in the lead up to the 2003 state election as well as more professional development money in schools.

It may be tempting for the cynics among us to dismiss the Futures Project as an exercise by a Director-General with expertise in "change management" rather than education. We cannot afford such an approach. The fewer the submissions, the more likely they will be dominated by these enamoured of local selection and school restructuring. There are far more urgent issues for government to address in our schools and TAFE colleges; for example, the teacher shortage, infrastructure for 21st century schooling, smaller class sizes, more preparation time for teachers and the list could go on.

The Director-General was reported as saying that the results of the Futures Project consultation process will be used by the Department during the negotiations for the next staffing agreement. This is an interesting concept given that nowhere in the consultation document (entitled Excellence and Innovation) does the Department describe what the staffing agreement is or how it works. In this context consultation becomes a farce.

The staffing agreement is an industrial agreement about how teachers will be allocated to the 2200 schools across the state. However, it is much more than a transfer system. It is the basis for curriculum, funding and staffing guarantees for every child in NSW. It is the pre-requisite for a universal system of schooling. The bulk of the education budget is spent employing qualified teachers. Devolving staffing budgets to schools means principals being responsible for finding qualified staff with a shrinking budget during a teacher shortage.

The next step will be to deregulate industrial conditions and make qualification requirements less "rigid". Schools, not government, will then bear responsibility for funding shortfalls in our system.

We must, as we have always done, continue to resist these outcomes. Deregulation amounts to defunding. This is the message we must take to the principal groups and the parents.

Some of the people pursuing changes to the staffing agreement are operating from good motives. For example, we do need more experienced teachers in our more difficult to staff schools. This can be accomplished without dismantling the public education system. Increasing the number of promotions positions at more difficult schools, for example, may attract more experienced teachers.

In the wake of the federal election the Federation needs to do much work for public education. The "national resource standard" prepared for the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) requires governments to increase their public education funding by $2 billion. It is an understatement to say that it will be hard to get the state governments to this mark. Meanwhile, Federal Treasurer Peter Costello is busy revising the "surplus" announced during the federal election and some promises seem destined to be jettisoned as "non-core".

On November 1, Ross Gittins (Sydney Morning Herald) analysed the deliberate advantaging of the wealthy by the Federal Government. In part he said:

"Rather, he's [Howard] increasing the size of government and its intervention by spreading public subsidies to private institutions. He's putting the private sector on the public teat. He's saying to the rugged individualists who want to be Free to Choose their own child care, education and health care, 'Here cop this big subsidy.'"

In the face of this overt privatisation process, the public education community must ensure that the $700,000 extra over four years promised by the Federal Government for public schools capital works is not thrown overboard. We cannot allow public education to be marooned by governments who no longer believe in Australia as an egalitarian society.

Futures Project redundant and dangerous

Plan aims to dismantle staffing system

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November 2004 contents