The concept that the Federal Government needs to further support public education has again been championed by economist Alison Pennington.
Writing in The Saturday Paper on 15 August, Ms Pennington built on her speech delivered at Federation’s recent Annual Conference: “Although Labor’s commitment to healthcare and education is undeniable, the public services can’t be repaired while propping up private systems honed in the Howard era.”
“The better-off get a chance at healthier, happier lives, less friction with bureaucracy and more agency, while everyone else gets overcrowded crumbling classrooms, emergency care only, waiting lists, safety nets, and the means-testing quagmire,” she writes in The Saturday Paper.
“Private health and education expand their remit by diverting taxpayer funds away from quality public provision, weakening the political salience of public goods. Worst of all, the underserved fund the inequality that subjugates them. Donations to private schools to build Hogwarts castles and Olympic-sized swimming pools are tax-deductible, while no dedicated federal funding stream exists for public school infrastructure. This leaves an accumulated capital expenditure gap of $38 billion between private and public schools over the past decade.”
In response to Ms Pennington’s article, Federation President Henry Rajendra said that for decades government spending in public school infrastructure has fallen behind.
“We know the majority of principals don’t feel they can offer the full curriculum with the infrastructure they have and feel they lack the purpose-built infrastructure to support students with disability,” Mr Rajendra said.
“Half of all principals say the maintenance of their school buildings is inadequate,” he added.
Federation is supporting the Australian Education Union’s Schools for Our Future National Inquiry into Australia’s public school infrastructure needs.
‘Government must step in’
“The post-Accord framework unleashed the ills of privatisation, wage stagnation and outsized corporate power, changing the economic and institutional fundamentals underpinning Australia’s welfare state,” Ms Pennington also states in The Saturday Paper.
“Saving our precious social democratic tradition requires the government to step in, take the reins and act forcefully against unscrupulous private actors.”
She suggests that rather than relying on interest rate hikes to protect people from destabilising inflation, the government could take inspiration from countries such as Mexico and Spain, which have employed targeted price controls, subsidies and strategic tax adjustments.
“In the long run, structural price stability is best achieved through public provision of essentials. The Federal Government should, using its lower borrowing costs and bargaining power in supply chains, prioritise direct public delivery in priority areas,” she writes.
Echoing her speech to Federation’s Annual Conference, Ms Pennington states: “Price stability means investing in our universal healthcare and education systems, weaning private parallel systems off the public teat and redirecting those funds to Medicare, public schools and TAFE, including integrating early childhood education and care into the state’s public education ‘stack’.”
She called for an “honest conversation about ambitious, creative ways of taxing unearned wealth”.
Mr Rajendra said Federation will continue to work closely with the broader union movement in pursuit of a fair economy for all workers, families and their communities.