By Shane Bentley and Peter Johnson
SYDNEY — Members of the NSW Teachers Federation held two-hour stop-work meetings on June 17 to protest against the Howard government's promotion of private schools over the public school system. Concerned parent groups also participated in the more than 200 Sky Channel meetings held across the state.
In the broadcast, Sue Simpson, president of the federation, stressed that, while private schools received federal budget increases, the federal government has cut back funding to public schools and TAFE colleges in real terms.
"The Howard government has put into private hands the bulk of the NSW Adult Migrant English Service (AMES)", she said. "This means that in two weeks' time 500 teachers of English to adult migrants and refugees will lose their positions in a service which has provided quality public education for over 50 years."
"Education is now being treated as a business, to be run by the lowest bidder", she added.
In the Illawarra, around 2000 federation members, plus members of parent and community groups, participated in the meetings. The union's Ross Brennan stated that the privatisation of schooling is creating fear, uncertainty and compliance. He said destroying public education will "entrench poverty and protect privilege".
The government's campaign to destroy public education involves four steps, Brennan claimed. First, the competence of public schools and teachers is attacked. Then "choice" (i.e., one system for the poor and another for the rich) is promoted. Third, schemes to shift public money to private schools (such as vouchers) are introduced. Finally, equity programs are destroyed.
Peter Wilson, the union's Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands regional organiser, said, "Private schooling increasingly allows for segregation and exclusion of children depending upon their backgrounds. An escalation of the extent of private schools could, in the longer term, lead to a more divided and intolerant society."
The official motion passed at all of the meetings called on the government to abandon the privatisation of AMES, abolish the unfair "enrolment benchmark adjustment" mechanism, which favours private schools, and restore the funds cut from both TAFE and universities.
Besides the calls to lobby politicians, produce information for the community and form parent-teacher committees, the motion also contained a vague commitment to an ongoing campaign of local parent and teacher actions in support of public education.
Amendments passed at a number of meetings included supporting the rally of Bankstown AMES teachers on July 26 and for organising a teacher and parent rally outside Parliament House sometime in the future.
In the Illawarra, the official motion was passed 2001 to one, the one dissenting vote being cast on the grounds that the proposals for the campaign did not go far enough.