Australian Broadcasting Corporation


LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2001/s343340.htm

Broadcast: 08/08/2001

Row over education funding continues

Reporter: Fiona Reynolds

KERRY O'BRIEN: In an intense pre-election climate, with education as a central part of the battlefield, Education Minister David Kemp today stepped up the pressure on the Opposition to support legislation which would provide extra funding for new private schools.

Labor has opposed the bill, demanding similar funding for public schools.

The public education lobby has accused the Howard Government of giving millions of dollars to the rich at the expense of the poor.

But now Labor has drawn the ire of both sectors.

The top private independent schools claim the ALP [Australian Labor Party] is being unreasonable and unfair in pledging to freeze their funding if it wins government.

While the public education lobby says Labor hasn't gone far enough.

Fiona Reynolds reports.

DR DAVID KEMP, EDUCATION MINISTER: We've got this posse of Labor state education ministers.

They're running down to a federal election.

They're trying to shore up their own political position.


There will no longer be bullying by the Commonwealth minister of state jurisdictions.

FIONA REYNOLDS: In the showdown over public school funding, it's press releases at 10 paces and the figures are flying.

The Federal Minister, David Kemp, is like a lone gunman, challenging the five Labor states to match his spending increases.

But the states point out that private schools won a rise of nearly $5 billion over four years, over double that of the public sector.

Caught in the crossfire are kids like 8-year-old Steve.

Steve's mum, Kristin Stegley, a former arts history lecturer, has seen more and more children sent to private schools.

KRISTIN STEGLEY, INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE, GOLDSTEIN: The way the politicians are playing ball with the education issue is making a lot of parents in this country lose confidence in the public education system.

FIONA REYNOLDS: Kristin Stegley chose to send her son to the local state school and is taking the fight for more public education funding right up to the Federal Minister, David Kemp.

She's standing as an Independent candidate in his inner Melbourne blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Goldstein.

KRISTIN STEGLEY: I don't think that the policies of neither of our parties are able to give the kind of a guarantee that all of our children will have access to high-quality education.

FIONA REYNOLDS: Kristin Stegley is boasting support from the Public Education Lobby, a newly formed coalition of national and state school organisations is planning a marginal seats campaign.

ANN MORROW: All schools are suffering but the public schools are suffering more than the private schools because, unlike the private schools, they don't have a champion, like Dr Kemp, who is funnelling millions of dollars into their sector to buttress them, to protect them against the cost pressures.

FIONA REYNOLDS: Under the Commonwealth's new funding formula, which kicked in this year, schools receive money based on the socio-economic status of their families determined by comparing children's addresses to census data.

SIMON MARGINSON, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, MONASH UNIVERSITY: Well, I think the Howard Government has made a careful calculation that they stand to gain more votes by striking the non-government school lobbies than they will lose by directing resources away from the government schools.

Now, time will tell whether that was the right calculation.

I suspect that it was right up to last year but there are signs that the government school lobbies are now becoming much more active and they're a sleeping tiger as far as the election goes.

If they wake, then the Government could be in some trouble.

DR DAVID KEMP: This has always been a very, heated debate because there are extremes in this debate.

There are people who don't want a balanced view.

They don't really want a mixed system of education in Australia between government and non-government.

FIONA REYNOLDS: Commonwealth funding alone to Melbourne's Trinity Grammar for boys is expected to almost double after four years to $2 million annually.

The school, of 1,100 students, sees that as recognition of the saving its parents make to the public purse.

RICHARD TUDAR, HEADMASTER, TRINITY GRAMMAR SCHOOL: They all pay their taxes and, like other families in the state, they're entitled to some reasonable support for education for their children.

FIONA REYNOLDS: But Trinity Grammar isn't budgeting for the funding increase.

It's one of 58 independent schools which stand to lose a total of $105 million if Labor is elected.

FIONA OGILVY-O'DONNELL, ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS, VICTORIA: There's obviously a view that this might be an electorally popular move to highlight a particular group of schools, brand them as "wealthy and elite" when, in fact, they have clearly got SES scores that suggest that they are serving communities that have got greater need than what was being reflected in the old funding model.

It's disappointing that education, which is so important to the future of this country, is being kicked around at the moment in this way.

FIONA REYNOLDS: While the independent schools are now hostile towards Labor, the public education lobby isn't satisfied with the ALP's proposed redistribution of funds either.

It questions where more money will come from to bring public schools up to scratch.

That's fuelling concern the Catholic schools, which make up two-thirds of the non-government sector, could also end up in the firing line - a fear David Kemp is keen to promote.

DR DAVID KEMP: Labor is under huge pressure from the lobby which doesn't want any funding for non-government schools and it's constantly seeking to compromise with that lobby.

MICHAEL LEE, SHADOW EDUCATION MINISTER: There's no difference between the Government and the Opposition on how much money should be going to Catholic schools.

The real difference is whether or not people believe that schools like Kings and Geelong Grammar should get $1 million or more increases rather than spend that money on offering teachers scholarships for teachers of both government and non-government schools, more professional development for teachers and urgent capital works on public schools.

That's the choice we're offering.

FIONA REYNOLDS: While the Howard Government maintains that some states, which are primarily responsible for public school funding, are failing, the five Labor ministers are preparing to convince voters otherwise.

They've set up a task force to demonstrate the Commonwealth should pitch in more and are considering mounting an advertising campaign.

One proposal for raising extra money for public schools is an education levy similar to the Medicare levy.

PROFESSOR SIMON MARGINSON: I suspect there's probably sufficient community support for that because people do want to pay more taxes if they know it's going to go to education.

FIONA REYNOLDS: While Kristin Stegley says an education levy could have merit, the Independent candidate believes the only way to resolve the debate is to hold a national inquiry.

KRISTIN STEGLEY: The important thing is that we come out at the end of the day fully supporting our public education system and not only ensuring that it survives but that it also thrives.