2016-12-19
Rob Delves
The Education policy story that The WA Greens want to tell in 2017 is a story about social justice. It begins with a strong statement about the importance of a good education: it enables people to live purposeful, satisfying lives and to participate fully as citizens in an effective democracy. Social justice therefore means equal access to this essential good: all people are entitled to free, high quality, well-funded and life-long public education and training. I love the bit about lifelong education: no-one is ever too old for education or love! I also like the insistence that a wealthy country can provide this public good free at all levels: overturning the huge increase in TAFE fees over the last few years is a particularly important battle for the 2017 election.
A first personal opinion: I believe our policy should make clear that “high quality” doesnt just mean the most rigorous academic curriculum leading to university — it means offering the very best standards in a variety of pathways. Schools must provide a variety of ways in which students can excel and, at the risk of sounding boring, I believe that we should go out on a limb for a well-resourced TAFE system with very low fees (try zero).
Equal and accessible
The Greens story spells out in some detail exactly what equal access entails: a high-quality education must be accessible to all Western Australians, regardless of socio-economic or cultural background, religious belief, disability or geographic location, including permanent residents and refugees. This doesnt mean everyone gets the same resources. In our very unequal society, a commitment to equality of provision involves a huge injection of resources to overcome disadvantage. So The Greens will fund schools based on the needs of students, including additional funding to address disadvantage.
The education policy document gets more specific, with a recognition that extra trained staff are the best resource for overcoming disadvantage: (1) encourage high quality teachers to work in schools servicing disadvantaged populations. (2) provide specialised support for students with special needs, those at educational risk, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and students from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
Social justice also tells the story of the immense social benefit of the common school where children of different backgrounds learn to live well together — the absolute bedrock of peace and harmony in a migrant country. We can confidently say that the local government school where everyone learns to get along together (in the words of Henry Parkes, the Father of Federation, “learning side by side”) has been one of the main reasons for Australias remarkable success as a harmonious multicultural society.
This isnt an anti-private school story, but a recognition that the provision of quality education for all is a very public service: the government should be the primary education provider at all levels.
A second personal opinion: I believe our policy should make clear that private schools receiving public funding must accept public obligations, for example the obligation to enrol their fair share of problem children and to continue striving to achieve the best for these students, rather than expelling their problems “to the state school down the road.”
The great dumbing down
How could any sane person not embrace our social justice education story? Fairly easily, unfortunately. Our values are at odds with the reality of competitive individualism. Parents are only concerned with getting the best education possible for their children, which means not settling for their local public school, but instead buying the advantages of private schooling or competing to get their child into the very best state high schools. And the conservatives target this desire relentlessly: Competition for the best jobs is fierce and so what matters is getting the best possible education for your child. Conservatives reject the socialist idea that everyone must attend the local state school — instead they want to maximise parental choice, especially the opportunity to afford a private school education for those who prefer that option. They say they offer freedom of choice of schools, the pursuit of excellence, school autonomy and accountability.
A Green response? Its not easy to counter the conservative narrative with a snappy slogan, as the explanations are complex. But Ill have a go: Liberal policies are making Australia a dumber country. Almost a three word slogan — and it captures the essence of our argument while getting nicely in their face.
People are rightly worried about the poor showing of Australian children in international rankings of literacy and numeracy. Bring back rote learning! Bring back the cane and proper discipline! Simplistic explanations and solutions are laughable, as educational achievement is a complex beast. However, The Greens should be confident in arguing that Equality (our social justice story) is top of the long list of factors. That is, inequality of wealth and income explains a lot about Australias poor educational outcomes, especially when this overarching inequality is reinforced (rather than combated Gonski-style) by a highly unequal school system, especially at the secondary level.
Close the gap
Inequality is bad for economics, bad for social harmony, bad for democracy and bad for education. If the egalitarian principle of the local school where children from different backgrounds learn to live well together is the main reason for Australias social harmony, then its opposite — raging inequality — has been identified by many educational researchers as the main reason for Australias disappointing performance in rankings of educational performance.
There is a very strong correlation between equality and achievement in international testing on numeracy and literacy. Put bluntly: countries such as Canada, Ireland, Austria, Korea, Finland and other Scandinavian countries, with much smaller differences between rich and poor, have higher overall education standards — mainly because their lowest 20-30 per cent of students do much better than their counterparts in Australia.
The reasons are not hard to find. Governments in Australia spend less on education and active labour market programs such as training than a majority of developed OECD countries and what is spent on education flows proportionally more to the more advantaged students. Our education system is relatively more dependent on private financing. The best-off Australian families spend about 2.6 times more on each of their children than the poorest 20 per cent of families and much of that spending is on their education.
Give it a Gonski
The Australian Education Union is asking political parties to respond to its Position Paper for the 2017 state election. Support for the full Gonski funding heads the union wish-list and The Greens are 100% on board here. The conservative refrain is that throwing more money into schools doesnt improve standards. Two responses. Firstly, there are dozens of schools in disadvantaged areas reporting that even the limited Gonski funds made available so far have brought solid benefits. Secondly, look at the money thrown at the sorts of schools our conservative leaders send their own children to — this shows very clearly indeed how much money they believe is needed for a decent education.
The Greens social justice education story has a lot going for it: Education is an important right for everyone and the best results for everyone are achieved when it is free, and delivered as a very public service committed to equality and reducing disadvantage. Vote for a well-educated country rather than a stupid country.
Photo credit: WA Department of Education