Opinion & Commentary
Opinion and Commentary contains media articles written by CIS researchers.
Categories
My School sheds a welcome light
If governments gather important information about schools and students, it should be available to everyone. The My School site simply gives parents easy access.If governments gather important information... Read More
Federal micro-managers to rule the schools
Responses to the federal government’s school funding proposal have been less than enthusiastic. People have rightly pointed out that increased expenditure on education does not guarantee better results.... Read More
Gonski reforms at risk of failure to launch
Two camps have emerged in the Gonski wars, with one camp saying it's all about the money. Read More
Students should seize the day, not the decade
No real thought is given to the consequences of keeping young people in education for an extended period of time. Read More
Degrees lose their cachet
Higher education is not a useful ticket for employment. Read More
Far-reaching literacy strategy called for
The finding that one in four students has reading ability either at or below the basic level will be no surprise to anyone working in schools in disadvantaged communities. Read More
Better schooling, not uni quotas
LARISSA Behrendt's recent report recommends doubling the proportion of indigenous students at universities. Only 1.09 per cent of university students are indigenous and Behrendt argues that the target... Read More
Mistakes writ large if reading goes wrong
A flawed report shows the muddled state of literacy policy in NSW. Read More
Top quality pre-school is child's play
High quality pre-school can significantly mediate the negative impact of a language and literacy-poor home environment, beginning at the age of three. Read More
Opportunity for major reform
The highlight of the Gonski report is that it is student-centred; shifting the focus from the demands of schools to the needs of children. Where the report falls short is that it is not entirely sector-neutral. Read More
Staffing reform a crucial issue
More autonomy for principals to hire, fire and pay teachers for performance is needed, writes Jennifer Buckingham. Read More
Gonski: less for private schools
The Gonski report's model as it applies to non-government schools has several redeeming features. It provides for a minimum per student public funding entitlement for all non-government schools regardless... Read More
Gonski review must not hobble choice
On Monday, the report of the federal government’s Review of Funding for Schooling, commonly known as the ‘Gonski review’ will be released, along with the government’s initial response. So far,... Read More
Who needs four uni degrees or even one for that matter?
Most jobs don't require university degrees. A key purpose of education is to give students a chance to signal their aptitude and diligence, rather to acquire knowledge for later vocational use. Fostering... Read More
Degrees of difference
Many people have taken umbrage at this arguing that having a separate form for some remote communities is an example of 'positive discrimination'. Few people seem to understand the broader implications... Read More
Census apartheid: separate form separates a community
The use of a separate Census form for some discrete Indigenous communities is not only state-sanctioned apartheid but statistically invalid. Read More
A confident secularist society would tolerate school religion
A confident secular society, one that trusted in its rationalist public institutions, should have no problem with occasional church-run classes. Read More
Artful dodges
Pragmatic politics alone suggest that Australian governments will rarely lift spending per higher education student, in the humanities and social science or any other field. Read More
OOHC not working for at-risk kids
The causes of the OHHC crisis care are multifaceted. But the consensus among experts is that at the heart of the crisis is the increasing numbers of children with 'high needs' entering care because of... Read More
Paying for higher education is not popular
Paying more for higher education is not popular but extra places could be provided in lower-cost teaching-only institutions. Read More
Demand driven only if it suits
Gillard rightly denies that her demand-driven system was a voucher system but doesn’t push for choice and competition. Read More
Not all teaching is a qualified success
Though formal education qualifications play an increasing role in labour markets, employer judgments remain critical in most occupations. Read More
Will bonus payments for teachers improve children’s education?
Decentralise salaries and let the market decide what teachers are worth based on their qualifications, professional standing and record. Read More
When it comes to university funding, the important thing now is to ensure the price is right
The federal government has introduced legislation for a Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, to replace a decentralised and, for universities, light-touch approach to standards and quality. Read More
Bureaucracy threatens academic freedom
A tertiary education regulator will directly involve a government agency in academic affairs for the first time. It puts much at risk. Read More
Remote chance of university
Although Indigenous graduates are taking their place in the professions and doing postgraduate studies, most of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in remote areas and on welfare... Read More
Top students go backwards
The number of high achievers at school is shrinking because all the attention goes to the weak. Read More
Rewriting the formula on fairness
In trying to help disadvantaged students get to uni are we making the system unfair? Read More
Disability payment should not be de facto dole
Our welfare system should not assume that disabled people can't be in paid employment. Read More
A buyer's market
We should trust in the wisdom of the crowd to guide the direction of Australia's higher education. Read More
The growth of religious schooling
As religious schools have become more numerous and more visible, they have also become more prominent in debates on education policy. Read More
Let's avoid the OECD cringe
Don't let international comparisons become the only benchmarks for our higher education funding policies. Read More
Graduates can afford to top up funding
In higher education, the key issue of funding rate per student remains unresolved. Read More
In search of that last small step
In abolishing controls on higher education student numbers, the two parties are coming very close to a reform that combines choice and fairness, says Andrew Norton in The Age, 31 August 2010. Read More
Putting a case for fee deregulation
On the key issue of funding per student, Julia Gillard's legacy as education minister is uncertain, says Andrew Norton in The Australian, 25 August 2010. Read More
Simple ambition for all schools
The much-needed review of school funding should fix a very confusing system. Read More
Students are bound to be the biggest losers
The stand-off between Julia Gillard and the teachers union is a no-win situation, says Jennifer Buckingham in The Weekend Australian, 1 May 2010 Read More
What’s fair about defining disadvantage
Could the government’s new higher education equity policy end up being unfair? Though the policy’s details are not settled, this is the risk we face. Read More
Holes in new path to reform child care
In December, the Council of Australian Governments comprising the Prime Minister, state premiers, territory chief ministers and the president of the Australian Local Government Association announced a... Read More
Funding policy revamp a question of balance
Australian universities will face challenges to keep courses open while meeting funding criteria. Read More
Teacher union still waging a war against transparency
The Australian Education Union is waging a war against the publication of school league tables and proposes to reinstate school inspections. Read More
Principal is the means of elevation
Somewhere between one in five and one in six students are barely literate and numerate, according to recent national literacy and numeracy results. Poor literacy and numeracy outcomes are concentrated... Read More
Informed choice leads to better schooling outcomes
Over the last 10 years or so, the school education landscape across Australia has altered significantly. There have been changes in the types of schools children attend, as well as the way they are funded.... Read More
Fund kids not schools
The debate over funding to non-government schools has never really gone away. On the horizon is yet another review of federal funding arrangements and it is likely that big changes will be made. Read More
School Reporting Policy is in a League of its Own
When the federal government confirmed last year that it would be making good on its election promise to introduce transparency measure for schools, it attracted intense criticism from many quarters. These... Read More
Good for jobs, bad for education
If ever there was good evidence that politics and education don’t mix, the fiasco of the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program is it. Every principal, P&C, teacher, student and parent in... Read More
The gap between us
At the budget lock-up for education last week, vice-chancellors and ministers enjoyed some rare moments of unity. Ministers Julia Gillard and Kim Carr were clearly pleased with their package of spending... Read More
Private hurdle for kids
The number of school students with disabilities is increasing every year. The government school sector has the largest number of these children. In 2007, 5.7% of enrollments in government schools were... Read More
Private hurdle for kids
The number of school students with disabilities is increasing every year. The government school sector has the largest number of these children. In 2007, 5.7% of enrollments in government schools were... Read More
No point in Bradley's vouchers
There is no point in the Bradley Review’s voucher scheme without deregulation. Read More
Unskilled and over-educated: A plan for worse outcomes
Forcing students who gain no benefit from additional formal education is pointless. Read More
Modest gains but at a price
The Bradley report is hardly a ringing call for transformation. Read More
School litany of shame
With the May 2009 national literacy and numeracy tests only six months away, it is not too soon to focus on the reasons why more than half of the Northern Territory's Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 school children... Read More
Learning from New York to improve our education system
New York City's letter-grade school report cards form only one part of the reform program implemented by its schools chancellor, Joel Klein. Read More
Every good parent deserves truth
State governments have reams of data about schools, but parents - and anyone else interested in education - get to see little of it, at least in any meaningful form. Take this year's Higher School Certificate... Read More
Amenities return, wrapped in red tape
`Never choose a simple scheme when there is a complex alternative' seems to be the motto of Australian higher education policymakers. The paperwork-intensive plan to restore funding to student amenities... Read More
Brightest and best miss out
When the OECD described Australia as a ‘high quality, low equality’ country in its 2000 PISA report, it fuelled an existing preoccupation among educators and academics about the amount of variation... Read More
Supply and demand formula for universities is failing
Around Australia, the first applications for next year's university places are now in. Unfortunately, for university applicants, Victoria is not the place to be. Disappointment will be more common in Victoria... Read More
School reporting will be the first test of Labor’s ‘modern federalism’
A problematic feature of school education in Australia is that there is a fair amount of choice available to parents, but there is very little information on which to base their choices. When it comes... Read More
The Child Care funding myth
Australia's labour shortage continues to play havoc with some regions and sectors of the Australian economy, frustrating many employers. While retention of older workers and the use of migrant workers... Read More
Teachers need help with job appointments
Last month, all NSW public schools were effectively closed because the NSW Teachers Federation called on its members to take part in a 24 hour strike. Traditionally, parents of children in public schools... Read More
Protectionist Ploy A Blast From The Past
Private providers of higher education have been assisted by the extension of the FEE-HELP loan scheme that lets their Australian students borrow money on similar terms to HECS students in commonwealth-subsidised... Read More
Teachers: Scale their pay to meet demand
It is regularly argued that teacher pay in Australia is too low, and that this is a disincentive to enter the profession. Yet by international standards, Australian teacher salaries are relatively high.... Read More
Proof of the pudding: health campaigns don't work
There is slim support for the belief that preventive public health policies have brought obesity and lifestyle disease under control, or that they are likely to in the future. Read More
Here are the three keys to improving our schools
The Australian government’s ‘Australia 2020 Summit’ is now less than a month away. School education, which falls into the ‘Productivity’ session, has already attracted some controversy. Given... Read More
Failures in education policy are creating a lost generation
The Northern Territory has known for more than a decade that Indigenous students are completing its Aboriginal schools (Learning Centres and Community Education Centres) with the numeracy and literacy... Read More
Unis should kill their funding proposal
The finance industry has long had its eye on student debt, which reached $14.5 billion last year. They wanted to buy this asset from the government, and receive future student repayments of HECS (now HELP)... Read More
Don’t demonise private education
A significant and increasing number of children are attending religious institutions for their education. Around two-thirds of the 2710 non-government schools are Catholic schools. Of the remainder, known... Read More
Effective teachers where they are needed most
The central and essential part of an education revolution will not be laptop computers for every child. It will be effective teachers where they are needed most. Read More
Raising the school leaving age is not a cure-all
Morris Iemma and Education Minister John Della Bosca have announced the NSW minimum school leaving age will be raised to 16 next year. They are holding open the prospect of raising it to 17 or even 18... Read More
Rudd revolution must grasp basics
Now that the federal election is finally over, those of us interested in education are waiting with bated breath for the heralded ‘education revolution’. The lack of class warfare rhetoric is a welcome... Read More
Charting a new course through schools red tape
The state school system in Victoria has gone further towards empowering individual schools and enabling parental choice than any other state or territory in Australia. Victorian schools have local selection... Read More
Teacher pay and performance
Ten years ago, the front page of a Sydney tabloid identified Mount Druitt High Year 12 as the ‘Class We Failed’ when no student achieved a Tertiary Entrance Ranking over 44.4. It was upsetting for... Read More
Boost pay to keep teachers
There is "a long tail of under-achievement" among disadvantaged school children, according to a recent Commonwealth Senate Committee report, Quality of School Education. By Year 5, the top 10 per cent... Read More
Testing times for literacy and numeracy
Last week was national Literacy and Numeracy Week, a time to recognise schools and individuals making a difference in literacy and numeracy education and to consider future opportunities for progress and... Read More
Trade skills lose out to scarfie lifestyle
Do we really need so many students, especially when it’s so expensive for both the taxpayer and the individual Read More
University trade-offs for middle classes
It’s now accepted wisdom that you need a university degree to have a successful and rewarding career. The last 15 years have seen a doubling in the number of students at tertiary level, mostly at university,... Read More
Broader scope in NT for schools
Forcing students to attend school, without addressing the issues of education supply in remote community schools, will not result in more children getting a good primary school education. Read More
Is university overrated?
It’s now accepted wisdom that you need a degree to have a successful and rewarding career. The last 15 years have seen a doubling in the number of students at tertiary level, mostly at university, and... Read More
In Indigenous communities it is all about the teachers
If you have flown with Qantas recently, you may have seen the documentary Bush School made in 2004 about the Warrego primary school outside Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Read More
Teachers key to remote schools
In Aurukun on Queensland's Cape York, the school leadership refuses to accept that the complexity of the issues facing the indigenous community is an excuse for its children not getting a good education. Read More
Give parents informed choice for schooling
In his widely-reported speech to The Centre for Independent Studies this week, the Prime Minister talked about the importance of choice in education. When parents can choose a school for their child, we... Read More
Places left untouched by reform
The $5 billion Higher Education Endowment Fund announced in last week's budget gives the Government what it has long lacked: a positive symbol of its support for higher education. University leaders, whose... Read More
State must focus on Aboriginal schooling
When the nation’s education ministers met in Darwin last month, nit-picking over the national literacy and numeracy benchmarks was on the agenda. According to newspaper reports, the States and Territories... Read More
Excuses fail our neediest students
In remote community schools, children often miss one or two days of school a week. Most cannot do maths or read at their age level, and few learn to do so beyond the level of an eight-year-old. As many... Read More
Graduate supply fails to match jobs demand
THIS year more than 170,000 Australians will enrol in an undergraduate course, yet according to academics and politicians there should be more. Read More
A degree of dissatisfaction
The annual offers for university places bring joy for many but disappointment for others, whose applications find no takers. Read More
Power (and cash) to the principals
Although much has been made about the poverty of educational standards in Australian schools lately, it is surprising that things are not a good deal worse. On many important aspects of education policy... Read More
Rudd pins his faith on remissions
Labor is promising an "education revolution" but its higher education policy so far looks more like a counter-revolution. Read More
Furore over private-school fees is just a distraction
A couple of times each year, there is a lot of fuss about increases in private-school fees. This causes much consternation among people who oppose public spending on non-government schools. Fee increases... Read More
Keep the faith in education
In the world of education, certain words have image problems. One of the words most in need of a public relations makeover is ‘profit’. Read More
Lessons that everyone can profit from
In the world of education, certain words have image problems. One of the words most in need of a public relations makeover is ‘profit’ Read More
Funding system is broken
The annual release of the Good Universities Guide, with its estimates of how much each full-fee course costs, is becoming a political event so predictable that we can note it in our calendars. Each year,... Read More
Report into literacy and numeracy too narrow
Late last month, in his address to Reconciliation Australia, Prime Minister John Howard said education lay at the heart of bridging the gulf between indigenous Australians and the rest of the community,... Read More
Choice is best for curriculum
School curricula and the standards of students seem to be constantly under fire, with discussion over the last six months centring on senior school leaving certificates. Proposed changes to the Western... Read More
Showcasing Unis when price is right
Many critics of universities complain that commerce is put ahead of education. To them, generalist degrees are being replaced with vocational courses, full-fee students are preferred to those receiving... Read More
Time to open gate to school-based training
A few things are known about education. The most important influence on how much a child learns is the quality of teaching they receive. Read More
Leave uni governance in hands of the states
With universities, the Commonwealth Government has itself an exceptional pay less, get more deal. While its share of university revenues heads steadily down, the weight of rules and requirements heads... Read More
Raising tax threshold will restore incentives
Parents choose private schools for many reasons, but among them is the belief that more private school students go to university, and with higher ENTERs have more choice of course and university. Read More
More options in full-fee places
For seven years Australian universities have enrolled local full-fee under-graduates but the controversy surrounding them won't go away. Each year Labor's shadow education minister's staff search university... Read More
Campuses at your service
As a final provocation to the leftist National Union of Students before the federal election, the government last week re-started debated on its legislation abolishing “compulsory up-front student union... Read More
Uni reform package to benefit students
In most political controversies, the Government exaggerates the benefit of its policies, and the Opposition exaggerates the drawbacks. In the current higher education debate, the Opposition is playing... Read More
Higher fees will give students more choice
During a budget night interview, The 7.30 Report's presenter, Kerry O'Brien, asked the Treasurer, Peter Costello, how he could justify letting universities charge their students up to 30 per cent more.... Read More
HECS not putting hex on parenthood
Topical issues give new impetus to old agendas, and opponents of university fees are using concern over low and falling fertility to bolster their case. Read More
NZ school zoning: fairness or fraud?
Good state schools in both New Zealand and Australia are facing a large and growing problem—fraud. Families are providing false addresses within a school’s zone so that their children can attend the... Read More
Parents need report cards on schools
Greater public scrutiny would increase competition, improve education and cut costs. It was wishful thinking on the part of the Federal Government and supporters of funding based on socio-economic status... Read More
Outdated laws create problems for universities
Gloom and Australia's universities are longtime companions. The National Library's catalogue records half a dozen publications on the 'crisis' in universities, published in 1952, 1965, 1970, 1980, 1994,... Read More
Will higher funding really deliver higher education?
A curious feature of the current higher education debate is that very little of it is about education as such. A few brief arguments about teaching quality and how it can be improved aside, most discussion... Read More
Students gain in change
Are low-income young people more or less likely to go to university than they were 20 years ago? An article by Peter Spearritt against university fees (Perspectives, August 26) suggests that the answer... Read More
Public choice must fashion education
Dr Boston raises the important question of the kind of schools in which we would like to see our children educated. Thanks for asking, but can we have more than two options, please? There are potentially... Read More
Who says uni deregulation is politically unpopular?
What a difference 2½ years make. In October 1999, after then education minister David Kemp's plans to reform Australia's universities were revealed by the Opposition in parliament, John Howard ruled out... Read More
Unfettered deregulation for varsities
Reserve Bank Governor Ian Macfarlane created headlines recently with his remarks about Australia lacking a university in the world’s top 100. The remedy, he said, ‘will almost certainly involve the... Read More
Give choice a chance: Market phobia sees universities clinging to the stable penury of government funding
Five years ago, like today, there were signs that commonwealth higher education policy might be changing. On that occasion, the review of higher education financing and policy, chaired by Roderick West,... Read More
Free the teachers to help the students: Parental choice in schooling will improve education
A systematic comparison of the academic results of state and non-government schools has been a long time coming. Last week, the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) released a report confirming... Read More
Uni student quota system is unfair and inefficient
Although the unlucky ones don’t yet know who they are, more young Western Australians than normal seem likely to miss out on a place at university next year. This will come as a nasty surprise to people... Read More
Set our unis free
It takes some imagination to describe Australia’s universities as showing ‘clear indications of market failure’, but academics Len Bahnisch and Iean Russell do so in their recent article (7/11) advocating... Read More
Loss for education before polls closed
Even before the polling booths closed on 10 November, the higher education interest groups had lost the election. Read More
Central control dilutes quality
The recent Senate report, Universities in Crisis, declared that our universities are experiencing an ‘unmistakable deterioration in quality standards’. It is a common view, and we hear regularly about... Read More
Paying for a future by degrees
To the best of my knowledge, no government in the world has privatised education. Yet the arguments for privatising education, be it primary, secondary, or tertiary, are at least as strong as they are... Read More
A tax credit system should be the basis for funding education
There is not much for parents or schools to get excited about in the education policies of either of the major parties. As usual, both have taken the middle road, with one leaning slightly toward facilitating... Read More
Why education free-for-all doesn't have the numbers
Reaction to last week’s Senate report, ‘Universities in Crisis’, shows how tenacious hope can be despite many years of disappointment. Read More
Equity and the costs of learning
Once again the knives have come out over school funding. But what is the real basis of the opposition to public funding of non-government schools? Is it about the proper use of taxpayers’ money? Or is... Read More
Knowledge is a costly affair
The Knowledge Nation Taskforce's comprehensive agenda for upskilling Australia was widely welcomed yesterday. But the ultimate fate of the task force's report depends on a short passage near the end of... Read More
A Fair Go for all Schools
It is possible to deceive people without telling lies. In support of their campaign against the federal government’s education policies, an Australian Education Union advertisement in The Australian... Read More
Pass the Bucks
The idea that Australia’s universities are dumbing down is gaining currency. The latest argument is the widely reported claim by the Australia Institute that fee-paying students are passing when they... Read More
Homework Needed on School Funding
The fracas over federal government school funding documented by the media in the past few weeks presents a compelling case for a complete overhaul of the school funding system, both state and federal.... Read More
Staying in the Dark on School Performance
There is a movement in Australian education for increased assessment and accountability. Assessment and reporting strategies are being developed in most States, and testing has been implemented to develop... Read More
A degree of uncertainty
We often hear about a crisis in our universities, but the crisis is older and deeper in Arts faculties than elsewhere. Read More
Why Learning is a Hard Haul Without a Dad
Research over the last few years has shown that, on average, children from sole parent families have significantly lower levels of school achievement than children from couple families. This lower achievement... Read More
Schools Need to be Truly 'Public'
Discussions about the future of education in Australia tend to be constricted by a narrow view of the options. They revolve around the assumption that a public-private dichotomy in schooling is inescapable.... Read More
Swap obstacles for teachers
We need new methods to make maths teaching more appealing to the right type of people for our schools. Read More
Beyond the Classroom: How Parents Influence Their Children's Education
In a society that demands a high level of education and skill for a successful and stable future, a decent education is becoming increasingly important. A child’s education is the shared responsibility... Read More
Report card for schools
In a paradigm shift, four reports on education reform commissioned by the federal government agree on decentralisation, school choice, non-government schools, and private investment. Read More
