Comments on: Does the Australian government discriminate against private schools?

By: Lachlan

Lachlan — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:02:16 +0000

im studying this for debating, i hope u all know that

By: Andrew Reynolds

Andrew Reynolds — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:12:56 +0000

Amir,
Just for an indication of the quantum of current school funding – in WA the amount spent per child on the education system as a whole is more than $12,000. This is more than the annual fees for the top private schools here. On this (admittedly simplistic) basis if the Department of Education was simply closed down and a voucher system implemented, head teachers of all the current government schools would have a revenue budget much the same as that for the top private schools – provided they could persuade the parents to keep their kids there.
All the current government schools could then be privatised and perhaps run as mutuals, for example, with the voting “shareholders” being the parents of the kids at the school, as the voucher-holders.

If all govenment schools were privatised on this basis, Dion, would that work and if not, why not?

By: Dion

Dion — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:09:03 +0000

Yes, in which case I return to my original stance: private schools should be receiving no money, not more, from the government.

By: Amir

Amir — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:46:18 +0000

It would be a flat amount. For example, $3,000 per child. The difference with the current system is that, using this figure, the public school gets the $3,000 but the private school might get only $420.

By: Dion

Dion — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:58:00 +0000

Would the voucher cover the entirety of school fees for the student?

If it would, then the problem I see is that niche schools would cost more per student, and so you’ll get the situation of (say) a child attending a fundamentalist Christian school receiving greater funding than a child in a mainstream private school.

If, on the other hand, the voucher covered a flat amount, that seems to me to be another way of doing what we’re already doing.

By: Andrew Reynolds

Andrew Reynolds — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:42:43 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Dion – I thought that may be the case, but I could not be sure. Do you have an answer to Amir’s question?

By: Amir

Amir — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:31:05 +0000

Dion, would you support a universal voucher scheme as described by Andrew? Each parent would be issued with a voucher which they could then use to pay fees for any school of their choosing, whether private or public.

By: Dion

Dion — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:21:18 +0000

A non-competitive, purely public system, as seemingly envisaged by NN and perhaps Dion, is to me the worst of all possible worlds – short of no formal education at all.

Just to be clear, I’m not arguing for an end to private education but rather an end to subsidies for private schools.

By: Andrew Reynolds

Andrew Reynolds — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:15:23 +0000

If the goal is universal, quality, schooling does this mean the government needs to own all, or even any, schools?
To me at least what the public purse should be doing is to be funding the children and allowing the parents, who are closest to the children, to make the bulk of the educational decisions on their behalf. From a strictly utilitarian point of view education funding is there to try to ensure that children grow up to be responsible, productive members of society. From a self-actualisation point of view, on the child’s part, this would then include the ability to fulfil their own potential.
If we accept the position that the parent(s) know(s) the child best, and has their interests at heart, then a straight voucher system becomes, IMHO, the best one, with full home schooling allowed.
Unfortunately, in some cases children do not grow up in homes with parents who are capable of understanding their needs and acting on them. If this was adults making poor decisions on their own behalf and not affecting others I would look to leave the situation alone, but child abuse of this, or any, type is properly the function of a government; so the types of schooling available under this system would need to be limited in some way.
Other than that, allowing many differing schools should allow natural competition to find the best way to educate each child. A non-competitive, purely public system, as seemingly envisaged by NN and perhaps Dion, is to me the worst of all possible worlds – short of no formal education at all.

By: Club Troppo » Missing Link

Club Troppo » Missing Link — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 02:34:05 +0000

[...] At the Australian Muslim groupblog Austrolabe, Amir picks up on an earlier post on Andrew Norton’s blog about whether private schools are being discriminated against and starts an interesting debate about the issues raised from a Muslim perspective. The resulting comments thread is worth reading as Amir approaches this from a libertarian-leaning perspective, demonstrating the potential political synergies between one reading of libertarianism and multiculturalism, and encounters opposition from at least one left-leaning commenter who takes the view that all education should be public and secular. [...]