Lobbyists for the independent school sector should stop protecting their wealthiest members and admit – all low-fee non-government schools will benefit from the replacement of the SES score system, Catholic Education Commission of Victoria Executive Director Stephen Elder says.
‘Last night, Geoff Newcombe from the Independent Schools Association of NSW told the ABC’s 7.30:
If the Catholics’ rationale is to help their schools keep their fees low, surely the Government has got to acknowledge we should have that same right with those similar schools.
‘We made our rationale very clear in the paper on flaws in SES scores we presented to Education Minister Simon Birmingham in March 2017; the paper that the Minister ignored, creating the current mess Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is now trying to clean up. The paper concluded:
‘It’s there in black and white. We took a sector-blind approach, making recommendations that would benefit all less wealthy, low-fee non-government schools; Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Muslim or whatever – and have stuck to that approach.
‘The independent Chaney review of SES has backed the sector-blind findings of our research.
‘Talk of "special deals" for Catholic education is simply the invention of lobbyists for the independent sector who are the puppets of their wealthiest members and fail to represent the interests of low-fee independent schools.
‘As the Australian Association of Christian Schools said in a letter to Prime Minister last week, "a transparent, sector blind approach to funding has the potential to bring to a close the long-term politicised debates over school funding".
‘That’s what we’ve called for since before Gonski 2.0 – with the vital proviso that the funding also be fair and effective. Who could disagree with that?’
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