Opinion & Commentary
Learn to serve the public
About two short decades from now, there will be more non-government schools than state schools. By the time this year's kindergarten class finishes university, only one in two high school students will be at a state school. These are rough but conservative projections based on data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week. The projections may seem dramatic, but the actual data is no less so.
Last year the non-government school sector gained 200,000 students while state schools nationally lost 3000 students. These numbers are simply the latest in a long and steady march to private education. There is no reason to believe the pace of change will slow any time soon; indeed, it has accelerated slightly in the past several years.
Funding policies introduced by the Howard Government have smoothed the progress of the trend but are not solely responsible. Government funding to Catholic and independent schools may have increased considerably in the past five years, but with few exceptions it has not made these schools much more affordable to the average family. Despite this, more parents each year forfeit a guaranteed place in a "free" public school and pay for their children to attend a non-government school.
The reasons are as many and varied as non-government schools themselves. The Independent Schools Council of Australia cites teacher quality, discipline, values and safety among the reasons for parents' choice of an independent school. The Prime Minister once put the blame for the decline in state school enrolments squarely at the feet of state schools themselves, saying they were "values-free" and "politically correct".
Whether parents are flocking or fleeing is important right now, but it will soon become irrelevant. At the moment, the state sector is still big enough to hold its own against a highly competitive and increasingly attractive non-government sector. This won't last forever.
Although the move from public to private education is still relatively slow and steady, social change has been described by author and New Yorker journalist Malcolm Gladwell as being similar to an epidemic. The smallest change can cause a tipping point, where a social development is sudden and dramatic.
It may be a sudden flare-up in racial violence, seemingly out of nowhere. It may be a sudden and unexpected drop in fatal drug overdoses. Tipping points lead to months of hand-wringing and finger-pointing, expensive government inquiries and, sometimes, poor ad hoc policy.
Education has not yet reached its tipping point. There is time to plan ahead if we accept the need to.
Non-government schools have almost 40 per cent of our high school students. What will it take to convince us as a country that non-government schooling is a legitimate choice and for our education governance and funding policies to reflect this conviction? Will we wait until non-government schools are the majority? Will we wait until all of a sudden state schools can no longer hold their own and the students remaining in them are left high and dry?
One of the most common concerns about school choice is that not all people have choice and that there will be "sink schools" containing the students with the fewest opportunities and the greatest problems. This does not have to be the case if choice is planned and implemented carefully and deliberately. Sink schools are less likely to result if government education policy facilitates choice rather than impedes it.
What sort of policies would facilitate choice?
First, a school funding policy that does not discriminate between schools. Some students may be entitled to more money than others, but it will depend on their individual circumstances and needs, not on the type of school they attend.
Second, a governance policy that gives state school leaders more authority and discretion. Much of the advantage enjoyed by non-government schools comes down to their ability to operate relatively autonomously: to respond quickly to the changing needs of their students, to use their money as they see fit and, most important, to select their teaching staff.
It has all been said before, of course. Unfortunately, too few people have taken the message seriously. Vested interests within the state and non-government sectors have denied school choice the sort of wider community discussion and political currency required. Let's not wait for the tipping point this time.
Jennifer Buckingham is a research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
