Public education has the edge
We will know that our public education campaign has been successful when our schools are well funded and politicians instinctively treat teachers with respect, writes MAREE O'HALLORAN.
Great success stories
Public education is a great Australian success story. As an institution, public education provides one of the fundamental planks for a democratic, cohesive and civil society. Public schools and TAFE colleges promote equity, fairness and the pursuit of individual excellence.
Our intrinsic and intuitive belief as teachers that public education has the edge has been validated by a comprehensive study of 12,500 first year students from Melbourne's Monash University. The study found that students from comprehensive public schools achieved better results than those from government selective, independent and Catholic schools. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 6, 2005:
"Public school students who leave Year 12 with lower marks than their private school rivals overtake them academically once they hit the 'level playing field' of university."
On Public Education Day this year, to be held on May 19, teachers, students and parents will celebrate the great achievements of our system. Our celebrations, however, are not only founded in justifiable pride. They are a real and necessary political act.
The Monash findings would appear, for example, to be the definitive "good news" story for public education. Not so, according to The Australian, a newspaper steeped in right wing ideology and an antipathy to anything public in education. The clear implication of the story run by The Australian on April 6 was that the Monash findings demonstrated that public schools (and therefore teachers) were failing their students.
Dr Dobson, on the other hand, co-author of the report said: "the findings had implications for the under funding of public schools and private and selected schools' claims to offer an extra value education." (Sydney Morning Herald, April 6).
On Public Education Day, while celebrating success, we will also call on governments to provide greater investment to support our schools and TAFE colleges. A new corflute sign, "Public Education -- Worth the Investment", should arrive at your workplace in time for Public Education Day. Please hang the new sign with the knowledge while government effort is not good enough, our public education communities continue to thrive.
Professor Vinson's audit results will also be released on Public Education Day. Professor Vinson's preliminary view is that while some recommendations, probably more than we would expect, have been partially implemented, the funding gap remains a significant issue.
The State Government willingly appropriated Professor Vinson's work for its election policy in 2003. It was, of course, our aim to make the Vinson recommendations government policy. However, most politicians and departmental officers now avoid the Vinson Report. This is not surprising, given its potential to continue to expose system deficiencies.
It also marks a corporate system so dysfunctional that the Vinson Inquiry and Report process in 2001-3 is not even a memory for the current Director-General Andrew Cappie-Wood or the Deputy Director-General Trevor Fletcher.
It was a wonderful irony to see that the Public Education Council, established on Public Education Day 2002, as the State Government's foil to the Vinson Report, found a strong case for increased public education funding.
The Council said in part: "Under current policy, settings, both State and Commonwealth Governments are contributing to increased public funding to non government schools with the combined effect of increasing the gap between resources available in public schools and those in an increasing proportion of non government schools."
Industrial success
The TAFE part time casual teachers' case (see page 3) was lodged in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission in 2001. The case has now finally been concluded and significant improvements gained from semester 2 this year. Thank you to everyone involved in this campaign.
The improvements are fully funded following personal representations to the Treasury by the Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt.
Unions are of great value
The union movement in Australia created our basic rights at work and is instrumental in protecting living standards for all Australians. The media like to emphasise falling union membership. However, there is another story that needs to be told. The average wage in NSW is $901 per week for union members compared to $779 for non union members (Workforce, March 2005).
The Federal Government's determination to break the union movement and drive down minimum wages will clearly reduce living standards for workers. The aim is to make people work harder and longer for less share of the national wealth.
The Howard Government is, however, starting to demonstrate the "hubris" and "fracturing" to be expected of their ilk. If the current John Howard and Peter Costello leadership fracas continues, then their ability to manufacture consent for their industrial relations "reforms" will inevitably suffer.
While the union movement sustains its strength, discipline and unity, it can win over the community. It is our job to encourage and inspire all Australians to reject the Federal Government's proposed industrial legislation and make the issue an election liability in 2007. I encourage you to be involved in the joint union campaigning about industrial relations.
NSW shadow education minister Jillian Skinner is not a success story for teachers. In the most opportunistic way she continues to use our public schools as fodder in her political campaigns. In March 2005 she stooped so low as to send out a media release labelling teachers as bullies. That the release was bizarre makes it no less of a disgrace.
We will know that our public education campaign has been successful when our schools are well funded and politicians instinctively treat teachers with respect.
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May 2005 contents
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