BY JAMES SMITH
If federal education minister David Kemp gets his way, by 2004, public schools will receive only an estimated 32% of federal government funds, despite educating 70% of students.
To its credit, the Independent Education Union (IEU) has played a progressive role on some issues around the funding of private schools. It opposes the Enrollment Benchmark Adjustment. The EBA, introduced by the federal government, redirects funds to private schools as the proportion of private school students increase. The IEU also supports improving funding of public schools.
However, the IEU supports government funding of private schools. It justifies this on the grounds of cultural, ethnic and religious diversity. In its October 21 presentation to the National Education Forum, it stated: "The IEU believes that the serious acceptance of religious and ethnic diversity reflected in public support for non-government schools and systems which embody traditions and values fundamental to the self understanding of various groups in our society is a strength both of multicultural pluralism and the Australian education system."
Religious and alternative schools should not be banned and parents should have the right to opt out of the state system if they so wish. However, there is an enormous difference between allowing religious and alternative schools to exist and using public funds to resource them, especially, as is the case at present, when funding private schools is to the determent of a public system open to all children, regardless of religion, ability, wealth or any other factors.
If public funding was withdrawn from private schools, as was the case from the 1870s until 1951, private schools would still exist. They would simply be forced to fund themselves through fees, utilising their private investments or by relying on their wealthy backers, such as the religious institutions.
If anything, the very wealthy religious institutions, such as the Anglican, Catholic and Presbyterian churches, should bear the full financial burden for the ideological education of their followers. Indeed, the purpose of many religious schools is to recruit to their religion.
The separation of church and state is a provision of the Australian constitution and should be defended against both Labor and Liberal governments, which have allocated the majority of education funds to private schools (90% of which are religious).
This is not the case in the United States and Europe. According to Sue Simpson (NSW Teachers Federation president): "In the United States and Europe, 90% of students attend public schools. The US constitution upholds the principles of the separation of church and state. This denies public funding to private schools."
Some smaller private schools that couldn't exist without government handouts would close. But compare this with the fate of Bulla Primary in Melbourne, a school open to all children, which was closed with just 40 students and the following year the Sunbury Christian Community School was opened, with government funding, on the same site with only 21 children.
Some defend the funding of private schools by arguing that teaching positions would be lost if government funds were withdrawn from private schools. In reality, the current trend of teachers moving across to the better-funded private system would be reversed.