School fees up as digital private school hit list
09 Mar 2011
Media release The Gillard Government will use new information on My School to mount an assault on the public funding of catholic and independent schools, leading to higher school fees, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.
"The Government can't explain how publishing financial data will improve literacy and numeracy or lift teaching standards, because there is no correlation," Mr Pyne said.
"However there is a clear correlation between publishing financial information and attempting to reignite the politics of envy and creating a new school hit list," he said.
Schools Minister, Peter Garrett, has confirmed that more financial data will be added to My School, including the value of assets, profits and trusts, which is precisely what the Australian Education Union is calling for in their campaign to slash non-government school funding.
The Greens, who seem to be directing Labor policy, are on the record wanting to slash non-government school funding back to the level is was almost 8 years ago.
This all adds up to the Government publishing financial information to wage a public campaign against non-government schools by drawing the focus on the tiny percentage of non-government schools with substantial assets, to the detriment of other independent and catholic schools.
"The climax of such a public campaign will be cuts to non-government school sector funding resulting in higher school fees. It will also result in less choice and diversity in the education system," Mr Pyne said.
While some schools are in a stronger financial position than others this doesn't lessen the burden on parents who often scrimp and save to send their child to the school of their choice.
Cuts to non-government schools will mean a second or third job for some parents.
"Julia Gillard and the Labor Government have long been opposed to public funding of the non-government school sector, but with over 33 per cent of all students in Australia at a catholic or independent school, millions of parents will be very concerned about another hit on their cost of living," Mr Pyne said.
March 4, 2011
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Adam Howard
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