The costs of school privatisation
By Marina Cameron
The sinister side of the government push towards school privatisation reared its head in early January when the Sydney Morning Herald reported large fee increases planned by Sydney's private schools. Fees for 1997 will increase by 6% on average, more than twice the level of inflation. This takes the yearly tuition fee at many private schools over $10,000 per year.
In line with a long-term shift in enrolments away from public schools, enrolment in private schools is expected to increase from 29.4% to 31.1% by 2000. The Liberals' policies will directly encourage this trend by further shifting funds from the public to the private system.
The government has lifted restrictions on the expansion of the private school system and has no way of regulating private school fees. Further federal subsidies will go to private schools, and budget increases to non-government schools (6.1%) were nearly double those allocated to government schools (3.8%). For every student who moves to a private school, the federal government will cut its funds for four public students.
United Secondary Student Union (NSW) member and Resistance activist Bronwyn Powell told Green Left Weekly: "The public system is being whittled away while more and more education costs are put back on families. We are drawing closer to a time when there will be very little left of the public school system, and many will just not be able to afford to send their children to high school.
Powell pointed out that the 1997 tertiary entrance scores across Sydney revealed vast discrepancies between poorer and richer suburbs. "These sorts of inequalities will only worsen.
"The private schools have publicly blamed the teachers' union for the fee increases because they pursued a pay increase. Teachers have a right to a decent standard of living and are campaigning in many states for the survival of public education. The blame lies clearly at the feet of the Liberal and Labor parties, which continue to cut public funding to education at a state and federal level."