For Whom the Liberal School Bell Tolls

C@tmomma Uncategorized

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As appears to be becoming the norm for Conservative political parties the world over, and in Australia, they have developed a blueprint for winning elections from Opposition which involves an amalgam of amorphous concepts, Fuzzy Math, Truthiness, Catch Phrases, Principled Words that look good on a backdrop and every marketing trick in the book. Or is that, every marketing trick that they can fit into a glossy pamphlet?

Thus with Tony Abbott’s Coalition we have the amorphous concepts of a government of ‘chaos and dysfunction, in disarray’. A position not actually borne out by the facts of a government who, despite instability, which is different, have governed well and in an orderly fashion over the last 3 years.

Tony Abbott likes to contrast that with his team, an Opposition ‘ready to govern’ with a ‘stable front bench’. Whether in reality that is a good thing is open to question, even as he tries to portray it as such, as you could also portray it as a stultified and sclerotic potential administration, unable or afraid to move on poor performers from their spots where they have become araldited to the Shadow Front Bench.

Anyway, as we all know, Abbott is simply trying to make the best of a bad situation, unable as he is, to move them, because if he does he invokes the agreement he made with Gary Gray as Special Minister of State which would see a cut in resources allocated to the Opposition.

Still, you can’t say that Tony Abbott doesn’t try to make every post a winner.

Also, the ‘Fuzzy Math’ is manifested in the Coalition’s position to dismiss the validity of Treasury estimates of anything but to laud the ability of their ‘Commission of Audit’, which would occur after an election of an Abbott government, to come up with the correct figures, in contrast to Treasury’s numbers, and upon which they would rely instead.  Just as the Coalition attempted to do in the 2010 election when they rubbished Treasury Costings of their policies and relied instead on the arithmetic of their chosen firm of WA Accountants (with links to the Liberal Party).  Figures which were subsequently proven to be without solid foundation, and more than a bit fuzzy.

The Catch Phrases, in lieu of cogent and accurate criticism of government policies, we can all come up with many examples of from the Abbott Opposition over the last 3 years. ‘Great Big New Tax’ being just one.

The ‘Principled Words that look good on a backdrop’, which the Opposition have chosen to background Abbott with this go around are, ‘Hope. Reward. Opportunity. Real Solutions and The 5 Pillar Economy’. All well and good, and what any citizen would aspire to for their country and to be manifest as aspirations for a government. Though I can see why the Coalition have opted for 5 Pillars, when usually 4 pillars are enough to support a structure, 5 are better!

However, all of that is not what this post is actually about. Instead I am wanting to focus on the ‘Truthiness’ aspect as it relates to the Coalition’s policy platform relating to Education.

Stephen Jones, MP pointed out in a Tweet the other day this paragraph from the Coalition’s ‘Real Solutions’ booklet which went to their Education policy:

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I had to wonder, what does that mean in reality? Because the Coalition aren’t telling us straight up. So I went to the Liberal Party Platform document to try and flesh out the motherhood statement in the pamphlet with some more concrete facts. Ever hopeful that I am of the Coalition having an Education policy, which has just been hidden away somewhere.

Here it is:

Federal Platform
The Liberal Party of Australia
THE LIBERAL WAY
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR
AUSTRALIANS
Liberals believe in a society in which all children have the opportunity
to develop their potential and all people have the opportunity to
achieve.
The education system is fundamental to achieving this goal, but
education goes beyond schools to include family and community.
Material reward, cultural enrichment and personal fulfilment may be
derived from an effective education system that seeks to overcome
limitations imposed by disadvantage and maximises opportunities
for all.
Liberals are committed to the widest possible freedom of choice
in education. The right to choose should not be just a privilege for
the rich.
In creating opportunities for Australians, Liberals will:
•
recognize the importance of families and good parenting to children
in policies that protect and strengthen the family;
•
ensure the widest possible freedom in choice in education,
promoted by diversity of systems and schools;
•
ensure that all children have access to the best possible education,
irrespective of sex, race, religion, socioeconomic background or
place of residence;
•
establish standards of literacy and numeracy, and accountability
mechanisms for their achievement;
•
help students overcome limitations and disadvantages by fostering
choice in education, accommodating diversity in needs and
aspirations, and encouraging excellence;
•
decentralise the control and administration of schooling
by empowering local systems and respecting school
communities;
•
promote awareness of the need for adults to upgrade their
education and provide appropriate opportunities for doing so;
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA
16
•
offer financial assistance where appropriate so that educational
needs can be met;
•
oppose discrimination based on irrelevant criteria;
•
implement economic policies that generate employment
opportunities;
•
assist migrants to integrate and find appropriate employment;
•
provide for the needs of special groups in the community,
including the disabled, the aged, indigenous Australians and
remote communities; and
•
recognise that gifted and talented children often have special
educational needs, which must be met if their potential is to be
realized.

Nope, nothing there that tells us exactly what the Coalition would do as far as their approach to educating our children and grandchildren goes. In fact, if you read it you would have to say that their aspirations sound very much like those outlined in the Gonski Report. ‘Provide for the needs of special groups in the community….’ Also, to ‘offer financial assistance where appropriate so that educational needs can be met’, sounds very much like they would provide something like the ‘School Kids Bonus’, which they have pledged to rescind.

Anyway, the line which interests me the most, and which is, yet again, left deliberately vague as to it’s implementation on the ground, is:

decentralise the control and administration of schooling
by empowering local systems and respecting school
communities

So, in the interests of informing ourselves just what this new system of educating our kids might actually look like, which the Coalition are keeping under wraps for the most part, possibly until after the election, we’ll have to go to those government’s school systems that have already embarked upon similar paths to see what they look like.

From the research I have done there may be a few options for paths that the Coalition may go down. They are paths that other countries with Tory governments have taken as they have turned over what we know as Public Education to Private Education Services providers. Which can also encompass ’empowering local systems’, or franchises, when you think about it.

Plus, I will look at those Coalition State governments that the federal Coalition are looking to for inspiration.

1. Vouchers.

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On ABC24’s ‘The Drum’ last Monday, a spirited discussion about what may be the specifics of the Coalition’s plans for Education policy, occurred between the IPA’s, Tim Wilson, and actor and friend of Kevin Rudd, Rhys Muldoon.  The Privatisation of Public Schools was discussed, based upon the paragraph in the ‘Real Solution’ pamphlet that I have highlighted above, and Wilson, often a public cipher for the Coalition’s private musings, was more inclined to think that the introduction of Education Vouchers for each student would be the best way to go and that any group, in any community, who would wish to start up a school, should be able to do so.

So, what is the Voucher system and how does it work? What are it’s pros and cons?

School Vouchers are a certificate given by the State Government that allows parents to take their child’s portion of that State’s per pupil education spending and apply it to the school of their choice (Private, virtual, or home) instead of the Public School district their child resides in.

What are the advantages of School Vouchers?

School Vouchers give parents who would not otherwise be able to afford it some choice in their child’s education. Public Education is the cheapest form of education and many simply cannot afford other choices such as Private Schools. The voucher system gives them the opportunity for this type of choice.

Another advantage is that all taxpayers pay for Public School funding regardless of type of school their child attends. So a parent, who has a child in the Private School system, is paying for the Public School system as well. This eliminates that double payment. Proponents also argue that School Vouchers would provide more competition across schools, which would in turn improve the quality of education for all students.

What are the disadvantages of School Vouchers?

The opportunity to undermine the Public Education system is presented with the School Voucher program. Public School enrollment and funding would take a huge hit. Essentially opponents of School Vouchers say that the monies being taken away from Public Schools through the voucher program would not be replaced and it would be difficult to be competitive without adequate funding.

It can also be argued that Private Schools, many who control enrollment, will not have enough room to meet the potential demand, thus having to turn down students who wish to attend their school. Much as they would love to, Private Schools would not be able to endlessly expand. Opponents also argue that parents who take the vouchers to home school their child may not be spending it properly on their child’s education.

I remember that when Brendan Nelson was John Howard’s Education Minister, he and Howard began to make sotto voce comments about a School Voucher program. Then Howard lost the 2007 election and the option has not been publicly spoken about by the Coalition since. Only the IPA.

For a more comprehensive explanation of the Voucher System and a comparison with other alternatives, you may like to read this: http://www.wested.org/policy/pubs/full_text/pb_ft_voucher.pdf
It may be an American information sheet, but so much in Education Theory these days is global and shared.

2. Independent Public Schools

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Fortuitously for me, over the last week, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Education Minister for the Coalition, has fleshed out what will be the policy that they will take to the election. By reading this informative article by Maralyn Parker in The Daily Telegraph, of Wednesday, July 17th, 2013:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/maralynparker/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/the_coalitions_school_education_policy_independent_public_schools_and_more_/

and an article, by way of reply, from the NSW Education Minister, in The Sydney Morning Herald, of Saturday, July 20, 2013:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/nsw-shuns-federal-coalition-plan-to-split-state-schools-20130719-2q9ng.html

it is now possible to say with confidence that the Coalition have a plan to spread nationwide, by ‘encouraging’ the States, that system which has been implemented in Western Australia, and is being rolled out now in Queensland. Though not one that NSW is interested in.

What is it and what does it involve?

From this article in ‘WA Today’ of March 25, 2012:
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/minister-refutes-privatisation-of-schools-20120325-1vs4k.html
we have the WA Minister of Education, Dr Liz Constable, explaining the guts of it as being about giving School Principals more autonomy in the schools they run and attracting experienced and outstanding Principals to the most disadvantaged schools, with financial incentives, and allowing them to develop the programs that will lead to an overall improvement in the school’s results.

Which sounds all well and good, and, as Dr Constable explains, it is merely the implementation of an agreement to do just that which has been entered into with the federal government.

The other aspect of the Coalition policy is this:
Under the policy, schools can apply to become an IPS, giving them autonomy over budgets and staffing, greater discretion over curriculum, and managed partly by a school board. They remain publicly funded and do not charge compulsory fees.

However, Minister Piccoli in NSW is not convinced:

”While we are talking about very significant devolution of authority from the centre out to local schools, we are not talking about wholesale autonomy,” he said. ”We will not be introducing charter schools or independent public schools because there is no evidence that they improve student performance.”

If it doesn’t lead to improved student performance, why advocate for it then? Unless it is to be the thin end of the wedge which leads to the Privatisation of Public Education, where schools are run by ‘Education Services Providers’, who take over the running of the schools and the education of the students in them, from the government.
Such as has been happening in Sweden for the last few decades, and is happening in Britain now, where the Cameron Tory government, under Education Minister, Michael Gove, has introduced Academies and Free Schools, and is considering whether to allow them to be able to run and make a profit:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cash-for-classrooms-michael-gove-plans-to-let-firms-run-schools-for-profit-8682395.html

So, as you can see, at least we now have an Education policy from the Coalition, and we can compare it to the ‘Better Schools’ offering from the Labor federal government.

Two radical new proposals to take education of our kids down a new path in the 21st century.

One an evolution of our present model and an improvement upon the, now generally recognised, failed model of the Howard years.

The other, a devolution revolution. And one which it’s critics say benefits the companies who seek to get into the education space, more than the students themselves.

The election will decide which one we get.

1,104 thoughts on “For Whom the Liberal School Bell Tolls”

  2. As are we all, C@t.

    Meanwhile, cute as it might be, no synchronised sleeping tonite!

    According to OH, who sleeps at the other end of the house, I spent most of last night coughing.

    Now, this might be the tail-end (so to speak) of my cold. However, an alternative explanation is available 😉

    Anyway, I’m off to basket now, and good luck to you if you think you can squeeze in next to moi 🙂

  6. I’m becoming increasingly concerned with the mental, emotional and spiritual well being of God.

    It’s all very well being worshipped, venerated, held in the highest esteem and all the other stuff that goes with the duties of being a diety. And, as must be said, a patriachal one at that. Mentally exhausting wouldn’t even begin to cover the it. Generation after generation seeking answers of you via the interpretations of others and books, purporting to be holy, you most assuredly did not write. Being witness to the constant flow of the virtuous. Some seeking solace. Some seeking knowledge. But most seeking absolution from acts of inhumanity drawn from the depths of a muculent darkness.

    I am not you, nor do I know you, yet I weep at what is done in your name. What has been done in your name .What will continue to be done in your name. Those who worship you are going to destroy you.

    You – God – put the fire in mankinds soul, kindness in his eyes, courage in his heart and passion in his quest. All for nought. They now use you as a foil. Useful only as an ideal. To be used for the raising of coin, abrogating social responsibilities and ensuring the humble show the contrition demanded of them. That children can, and will, be born into a world that neither You, nor I, can protect them from is a palpable, horrifying truth.

    The money changers now own the temple. The rich man owns the needle.

    Yet,

    it could have been so different.

    if 2000 years ago people had realised that you, God, in full and equal partnership with the Goddess, had sent your only Son to mankind, not to teach, but to learn.

  7. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
    I think this Spanish train driver might be in a spot of bother.
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/spains-worst-train-crash-in-decades-leaves-80-dead-20130726-2qnvo.html
    This guy is just a mongrel.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/defrocking-the-best-solution-priest-tells-inquiry-20130725-2qm2c.html
    Tony Burke won’t take any chap from the MSM.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/minister-vows-to-boost-manus-20130725-2qndu.html
    The responses to this request would make for interesting reading.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/rudd-woos-ceos-lets-have-your-ideas-to-boost-productivity-20130725-2qndv.ht

  8. Section 2 . . .

    Laura Tingle on “the unelectable Tony Abbott”.
    http://www.afr.com/p/opinion/net_negatives_of_abbott_electability_ZHxu4LpvEfBcj5hShwukrJ
    And hereim lies the problem. An interesting contribution from Barney Zwartz.
    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/abuse-claims-never-even-get-to-court-20130725-2qnef.html
    Things are getting messier for Essendon and Dimitriou.
    http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dons-power-struggle-emerges-over-handling-of-investigation-20130725-2qmvk.html
    FWIW the poll at the end of this article suggests that the punters don’t think four star Morriscum would stop the boats.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/tony-abbott-to-put-threestar-commander-in-charge-of-militaryled-border-protection-campaign-20130725-2qkbb

  10. BK – The mid-range Spanish train carriages are fast standard but the under-carriages are of an older design.

    The speed limit on approach to that station is said to be 80 kph.

    So ‘in trouble’ is most likely an understatement.

  11. And from the Land of the Free –

    A vintage Alan Grayson speech on the Reps floor on the Repugs’ health policy.
    http://americablog.com/2013/07/the-continuing-that-drama-that-is-the-best-health-care-in-the-world.html
    Weekly upchuks.
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/07/25/weekly-upchucks-abortion-education-hagee-and-more/
    Bill O’Reilly and a airheaded. blonde Christian Tea Partier go off on the persecution of Christians
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/07/25/video-victoria-jackson-goes-off-the-rails-on-oreilly-first-thing-communists-do-is-they-kill-the-christians/
    Some cartoons on the Anthony weiner comeback.
    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2013/07/25/cartoons-of-the-day-pack-it-up-weiner/

  14. BK – Yesterdays public forum by Abbott on Sky a tryout by the Libs it looks.

    A ‘fail’ it seems.

  18. BK
    I feel some of those Republican states extremities which pop up in your links do seem to be a fore-runner of what we could expect if Abbott-Credlin get control.

    I guess it proves C@tmommas point that whatever we feel about Rudd’s megalomania, the first problem is seeing off Abbott.

  21. Good morning. Thanks to all who braved an hour of abbott last night, very well reported, I award you all a Walkley.

    Still disgusted with lnp and media backing them on latest brainfart.

  23. So, the Opposition are getting the message loud and clear that the Better Gonski Schools funding model for Education is outrageously popular with the electorate and so has started crab-walking away from it’s trenchant opposition to it as the election bears down on them?

    I always thought they would. It’s just a far superior system.

    Of course, they’re still trying to give the impression of opposition to it by saying that they will only allow it to go on for a year after they come to office while they develop their own superior system. Though it’s my guess, based upon the research I did for this post, that if they did get into office the Coalition would graft their own ideological bent on to Gonski and bend it out of shape away from what it is under Labor, to what they desire under Conservative Education practice, as she is around the world now.

    That is, those Vouchers could be grafted on to the Individual Student Funding system. Also, there’s nothing to stop the de-evolution of Public Schools to the ‘Independent Public Schools’ model favoured by the Coalition. Of course, as I said, that can be the thin end of the wedge which leads to cost-cutting in order to fit into budgets set out by the boards that control the schools, turning schools into profit-making ventures instead of centres of excellence in learning, and sources for infiltration of the education software and curriculum industry, such as that which Murdoch is extending his greedy fingers into now in other jurisdictions around the world.

    So, for all those reasons, even though the Coalition may now say that they agree to adopt ‘Better Schools’, it’s still the right thing to do to allow Labor to embed it in the correct way. Not the Coalition way.

    It’s just the same ruse that the Coalition have used wrt the NBN. They realise how wildly popular it is, so they co-opt it. Then they turn it into a Frankenstein’s Monster.

  24. Remind me never to go to North Carolina…
    I really hope the crazy stuff the Republicans are doing over in the States isn’t to be replicated by the Coalition here if they win.
    The Liberal party almost needs to lose this election to be kept somewhere near sane. A loss would allow the moderates some chance of reclaiming the party from the religious right, but if they win Abbott and his backers like Dog-Lover Bernardi will be in control of the party and Government.

  26. When Julia Gillard made that condition on the calling of the spill, that the loser will leave parliament, I suspect she already knew the result and had given herself and those willing a parachute.
    After all, isn’t it nearly always the woman who “reads” a situation and moves out of a dangerous relationship?…..and this “relationship” between politics , the people and the military is getting about as dangerous as it can be.

  27. As a student of Roman history, with this LNP. military intervention against the “national emergency” of refugees in leaky boats….I don’t think I have read of anything more absurd than when Caligula sent the legions into the sea to do battle with King Neptune who he saw as his greatest enemy and in defeating the God, stole his treasure chests of sea-shells and beach-stones…..The man has gone insane.
    Absolutly, totally, absurd.!!!!!!!

  29. And tonight at the pub we should be toasting Mick Jagger, the only guy in the world who could french kiss a moose, 70 today! The Strolling Bones rock

  30. Andrew Elder ends that blog piece today (thanks for the hookup, Janice) with the almost despairing words.
    “Those who follow Rudd and Abbott as leaders of their respective parties will come to distance themselves from them, but for now the contest between these two awful, complicated and inadequate men remains compelling. “

  31. brianmcisme,

    Despairing words indeed but hopefully the end result will be a better political climate without these two awful, complicated and inadequate men.

  32. left right out,
    You know the only reason that St George won against the Bunnies was because Greg Inglis was out with a knee injury? 😉

  34. As I said, you need a political bastard of the sort that Rudd is to face off with Abbott. Julia Gillard would never have been allowed to get away with such utter political bastardry.

  36. September 21 looking the more likely election date now. Which I am happy with because #2 Son’s 18th is on September 7th and he really wants to be able to vote for the first time in the federal election. 🙂

  38. C@t,

    I agree. Doesn’t say much for community Australia though, when they’d prefer to choose between two bastards rather than back a leader with integrity and honesty, willing to put the welfare of the people of the nation ahead of personal popularity.

  39. What is more despairing, is that the MSM. are treating the LNP. policy as a fair debate!….I mean, those journos’ ..; have you EVER observed a more stupid, useless, incompetant bunch of fools that have EVER plunged the spring-load button on a biro, or pressed a letter of the alphabet on a keyboard!?….stupid and useless and wouldn’t pass a pre-school test for sensible construction of words with wooden blocks….as dopey as a two-brained mule and twice as blind as the two blind mice!
    Hopeless…gutless and useless!

  41. jaycee,
    That’s correct. No one I have seen in the media has begun to analyse how the Coalition would actually implement their Pattonesque Asylum Seeker policy in reality.

  42. jaycee
    I think you are onto something with your Abbott/Caligula comparision. Here’s a bit more. Abbott has made an old war horse his advisor for his war on boat people. Caligula made his horse, Incitatus, a consul. And to add a bit more in light of the ‘cereal’ comments yesterday – that horse was said to dine on oats mixed with gold leaf. An apt comparison to the millions Abbott will fritter away on Molan’s Miltary Extravaganza.

  44. And I would add that Caligula…in a moment of frustrated anger when his favoutite “colour” chariot racers lost at the hippodrome…he cried out in fist-shaking fury to the Romans there….”..If you all had but one neck!”

  46. Former defnce chief Chris Barrie doesn’t think much of Abbott’s OpSoB –

    “Mr Barrie says a two-star admiral already coordinates border protection, and the Coalition’s policy amounts to little more than a pay rise.

    “We’re going to pay someone a little bit more to do a similar job. It doesn’t sound to me like a way of solving this problem,” he told PM.

    “How will a three-star appointment of this nature improve things when we’ve got a two-star admiral already assigned in border protection command, and a different agency and slightly different responsibilities?”
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-25/defence-group-sceptical-of-coalition-border-policy/4844304

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