To Pay Or Not To Pay

By Dr Peter West on August 13, 2015 in News

Recently the Abbott Government floated another bright idea, suggesting that maybe we should make wealthier parents pay to send their kids to state schools. Not surprisingly, the idea was met with mixed reactions. So should Eastern suburbs parents be levied for each kid they send to the local public school?

I have taught and done research in many excellent state and private schools, some of which are in the Eastern Suburbs. There are always kids in a classroom with significant issues. Aboriginal kids have their own challenges. We have refugees in Australia who have struggled to survive, let alone become literate. We have kids with various learning disabilities. All will end up overwhelmingly in comprehensive state schools. These are the schools that bear the responsibility for finding and developing talent among ordinary kids. We need to nurture the teachers who work day and night to foster the creativity of kids from a range of different backgrounds. Without that, Australia can’t survive, especially with its many Asian neighbours whose culture demands that kids learn.

Wealthier parents have already put their kids ahead by reading to them and providing sporting and cultural challenges. These kids would do well in any school. It’s talented yet disadvantaged kids who must concern us. We must find better ways of fostering talent in kids of all kinds, and assist schools that do that.

So should we make some parents pay for education in state schools? It seems like an attractive idea, but how would we assess who needs to pay? The answer is, with great difficulty. We have found often enough that wealthy people are smart at hiding their assets and minimising tax, and we need to encourage parents of substance to ‘belong’ to state schools and defend them when under attack.

Regardless, it seems the idea of wealthy parents paying for free schooling wasn’t a serious proposal. After a kite was flown on the Monday morning, the Abbott Government backed down shortly after. “It was only a draft paper,” they said. Too often ideas are floated, as we have seen with the idea of raising the GST, then quickly backed away from, citing the Bart Simpson defence: “It wasn’t me; I didn’t do it.”

We must make governments understand that helping kids use their talents will be the only way Australia can survive in a tough world. We can only make adjustments to what our constitution will allow. We must work out how to develop the individual talents of every kid. We need a thoughtful response to developing literacy and all the other skills kids need in an unpredictable world. Kids from wealthy families will always survive and do well in life. We really need to help the others.

While there are some excellent private schools in the Eastern Suburbs, we must never forget the importance of the comprehensive state schools.

Dr Peter West teaches at the University of Technology, Sydney and gives workshops on helping boys achieve.