I'd love to see this government redirect 100% of the federal funding for private schools to public schools. A prestigious private school in Sydney was granted tens of millions of dollars by the federal government a year or two ago (I'm not sure when exactly) to build a pool and tennis courts. Meanwhile, my wife's public school needs repairs to its leaking roofs and the toilets need updating. A boundary fence also needs to be built. But the school can't afford it. Some parents can't even afford the $50 yearly fee. If an end to taxpayer funding for private schools leads to an increase in fees then so be it. If the parents can't afford the difference then put their kids in public schools. With the fees private schools charge, they shouldn't need ANY public funds.

Education funding by feds should be only per student.
The rest should be state funded public schools only.

AP, did the private school receive funding specifically to build a pool/tennis court or was that an administrative decision by the school management in regards to the use of public school funding?

Mr Hammer wrote on Jul 17^th, 2016 at 11:46pm:


Yep.

Tax payer Funding for public school students is still greater then for private school students.

Public schools tend to have a unionised teacher workforce and bad teachers are a protected species.

The morale is higher in private schools as both the students and the teachers have to meet certain higher standards to be there.

Its not elitist and we should be proud of our private schools as the graduates benefit us all.

The kids at the Institute of sport get much better funding and get our encouragement to excel, why not do the same in academia...surely this helps the nation.

The Elite troops of the SAS are more motivated, its harder to get in and i gaurantee the army give them much more valuable equipment and training.
Should we call for all soldiers to be funded according to some socialist ideal of all being equal, or do we accpet the great benefits of helping our elites and letting the cream rise to the top.

private school provide a way to help the cream and the cream help us all.

The highest funding per student goes to places like Arakun where they attack the headmaster with an axe and shut down the school and the unionised public school teachers head off to the whitsundays for a taxpayer funded 6 week break...not my idea of value for money

aquascoot wrote on Jul 18^th, 2016 at 7:28am:


My wife, who is a high school principal, has showed me study after study that proves that it's a fallacy that children who are educated at private schools do better academically than public school children. It's just not true. It only seems that way because of the media attention given to those few successful students who attended private schools who've become famous in one way or another. The fact is that private school students simply have access to better resources. The teachers are not necessarily better and are generally lower paid than public school teachers. How do I know? I asked my wife why she didn't apply for a recent job advertised in a private school. Her response was simple: she didn't want to take a pay cut.

aquascoot wrote on Jul 18^th, 2016 at 8:00am:


BUT, for the $30,000 a year some private schools charge students to attend, are they getting value for money? Are those students excelling and achieving scores well above public school students? Generally speaking, no, they are not. In fact, a few years ago my wife attended a prestigious private girls school on the outskirts of Sydney for an English curriculum event. Her students from a school of just under 200 students (that's 200 kids in the entire school, not that particular Year 8 group) outscored the private school kids in nearly every event on the day.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Jul 18^th, 2016 at 7:53am:



people have been telling you that for years.

The ONLY benefit to private school is the circle of friends you make which may benefit you when you begin your chosen career after school life.