Ross Gittins has written a penetrating economic analysis of school funding, under the headline, “Two-class school system a great way to entrench low productivity”
The article begins:
In 2011, the Gonski report recommended that government funding of schools be needs-based and sector-blind. More than 12 years later, it still hasn’t happened. And it’s by no means certain it will happen any time soon.
The idea of sector-blind schooling – funding all students according to their needs, rather than their religion – fell at the first hurdle. Sectarianism has bedevilled attempts to ensure all our kids get a decent education since the introduction of compulsory schooling in 1880.
Ross brings together many of the threads of the school funding debate: economic efficiency, social cohesion, the false ‘prestige value’ of private schools, and the reasons – historical and current – for the continued over-funding of private schools and under-funding of public schools.
The article explains the economics of school funding in a clear way that the ordinary person can understand – well worth a read!
