Why we should defund private schools and examine their values

Columnist and academic

There is no better time to defund private schools than now. And no better time to examine the values these schools teach to an ever-increasing number of students enrolled.

Parents are abandoning the values-led public system to send their kids to schools where,ifMonday’s shocking episode of Four Cornersis a yardstick,there appears to be little monitoring of what is being taught,by whom and how. If there are values,it is about keeping power in the hands of the wealthy and already powerful.

Tangara School for Girls at Cherrybrook in north-west Sydney.

Tangara School for Girls at Cherrybrook in north-west Sydney.James Alcock

Boys like us. Girls like us.

I once believed you should choose the right school for your own child (shorthand for our own prejudices). Instead,we should be fighting for a school system insisting on equity,not entrenching privilege. Yes,I was curious about the whole “the education is better” at private schools argument. Is there an academic reason to send kids to private schools? The University of New England’s Sally Larsen analysed NAPLAN results over time from private schools compared with public schools.

Here’s the headline:once you account for the family’s socioeconomic background,Larsen says,there is no average difference in achievement. Plus,private schools start to recruithigh achievers in primary schools. That increases the divisions we already have in Australia,and we don’t stop there. It now costsmore than $1 million to send two kids to some private high schools for 13 years each. If you can’t pay up,the schools will sendthe debt collectors after you.

We fund divisiveness. We fund the misshapen traditions and values,passed from father to son,from mother to daughter. Monday night’sFour Corners made me sick. Two schools linked to Opus Dei featured:Catholic girls’ school Tangara in Cherrybrook,and the equivalent boys’ school,Redfield. I’m not anti-Catholic. Far from it.

I’ve been married for 40 years to a former Riverview student who was in the same class as Dominic Perrottet’s Dad. I’ve never heard any of my extended Catholic family-in-law spout any of the harms which,according to former students interviewed onFour Corners,were spread at Tangara.

What are the other word-of-mouth traditions at these schools? Is it the repeat examples of sexual transgressions atCranbrook,Scots College,Waverley College,Scotch College,St Kevin’s,Brighton Grammar andWesley College (which to its credit has tried to address the problem)? What are the morals and virtues taught at a school like Tangara,which according to former students interviewed onFour Corners,actively lies to students?

What kind of school tells its students not to get a life-saving vaccine because it encourages promiscuity? What kind of school tells its students pornography causes holes in the brain? What kind of school tells its students same-sex relationships are evil while at the same time barely disciplining a staff member in a same-sex relationship with a disciple and former student? Do we think old school ties still matter? Not for long is my guess.

For all we know,there are schools across Australia rabbiting on about the dangers of promiscuity,Gardasil and pornography as if these were matters of fact. From my own personal experience,teen promiscuity means you will end up as a dull yet devoted wife of one and mother-of-three.

As Australian taxpayers we support private schooling by allowing the government to continue to fund private schools. AsFour Corners reported,in 2021,Tangara received $5 million dollars in government funding,an increase of 66 per cent in five years. Tangara and its sibling schools scored $20 million in 2021 alone. A year ago,we learnt130 private schools were overfunded by $120 million in one year.

David Zyngier,adjunct associate professor at Southern Cross University and a Greens councillor in Victoria,has campaigned for years forgovernments to defund private schools. As he puts it,it’s not government funding,it’s taxpayer funding. He conducted a little experiment on whether two public schools,where his grandkids go,are funded fairly. The answer was neither is funded to the Schooling Resource Standard. Every year,each school is underfunded to the tune of more than $1.5 million. Meanwhile,private schools are over-funded.

“The governments are robbing our public schools in order to fund private schools,” Zyngier says.

We don’t have transparent insight into what happens in private schools. Parents need to ask hard questions. Australian parents think they have to pay for values,says Debra Hayes,who leads the education program at the University of Sydney.

Louise Milligan presented the Four Corners program on Opus Dei on Monday night.

Louise Milligan presented the Four Corners program on Opus Dei on Monday night.Supplied

“But public schools are hothouses of values and value-driven practices,” she says. “Parents need to trust the public system and vote for it to be funded adequately.”

And as David Gurr,who runs Melbourne University’s education program,asks:“Can we say with our hand on our heart every school is a quality school? Is it a quality school for all students?”

It’s not as if private schools even share the load when it comes to students from disadvantaged backgrounds,or who have differing abilities.

But when it comes to education,money matters. All kids need access to good schools,ones that teach fairness,respect,reading and (don’t kill me) times tables.

Time to turn the tables on private schools. Labor has struggled eternally to deal with the unfairness of education funding. It’s time for Australian voters to say we back change now.

All praise to the students who spoke up on Monday night. Maybe we should ask the same questions of students at private schools everywhere.

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Jenna Price is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and a regular columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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