Court government to close public schools
By Ana Kailis
PERTH — The Court government has announced its intention to close four senior high schools, downgrade one to a high school and close one primary school in the coming months. This may be only the beginning of a more widespread school closures program.
The affected schools are Cannington SHS, Maddington SHS, Swanbourne SHS, City Beach SHS, Scarborough SHS and Oakville Primary.
The proposed closures are part of a plan to "encourage" more parents to send their children into the private education system.
According to Andrew Pheasant, president of the Australian Education Union (WA branch), this process began soon after the election of the Court Government when the then education minister, Norman Moore, attempted a to "rationalise" public schools by closing many of them.
The public outcry forced the government to retreat and attempt to find a more palatable way of selling its policy.
In 1997, the new education minister, Colin Barnett, introduced "local area education planning" (LAEP). While still a school closures program, LAEP gave the illusion that it was about improving the delivery of education in public schools.
Pheasant told Green Left Weekly that LAEP "tried to create the impression that the community, particularly parents, were going to be consulted in a genuine way. The government set the parameters within the local planning area frameworks so that the parents can only arrive at one conclusion, that the school has to be shut.
"They have predetermined the result, by limiting the criteria that will lead to a school remaining open."
For example, these criteria did not take into account the greater alienation in big schools and did not consider such things as revising staffing formulas to allow broader choice of subjects offered at the targeted schools.
The closures will force students to travel extra distances or move into the private system. One parent told Green Left that her son already has to travel excessively to get to one of the affected schools, which offers a special education program. The idea of further travel is prohibitive.
According to Pheasant, WA teachers last year voted to accept the 1997 LAEP framework policy before the implications were revealed. This has made the campaign against the closures more difficult.
Despite this, the AEU, parents and students are campaigning strongly against the closures. A rally was held outside Parliament House several weeks ago to highlight the political attack on public education.
Parents have set up stalls in shopping centres to build community support.
Pheasant said, "We felt the only way to highlight this problem was to start being political. It's a political process, so we need to respond politically.
"The only way we will stop these and other closures is when the community realises that LAEP has nothing to do with education planning and everything to do with economic planning. It's all about shifting resources from the public sector to the private sector and creating a two-tiered education system."
The public education system in WA is already stretched for resources. Closures will mean greater pressure on existing schools. The government has now announced that optimum school size is 1500-2000 students, signalling the possibility of other closures.
Pheasant told Green Left Weekly, "Opposition to school closures is a key part of the defence of public education".