Private Schools and the Future of Public Education in Australia

Abstract

The hottest topic in Australia in mid-2011 is private schools: funding arrangements, accountability frameworks, and the impact of their sustained growth on the future of public in the country. The Australian model of publicly supported private is rare if not unique among developed nations. All private receive support from the government on a sliding scale that takes into account community characteristics. Some private receive almost all of their funds from the public purse. At the same time, all are free to set fees to cover the cost of tuition. There are many instances around the world where private are publicly funded, but no other country allows such to set fees to any level that the market will bear. Some private in Australia still charge fees of US$30,000 per year even though they also receive government funds. As illustrated in Table 1, the trend to private schooling has been sustained over four decades. The global financial crisis has had no discernible impact. The shift to private is most evident at the secondary level, especially for the final years. Table 2 shows the distribution of students by sector in year 12 in 2008. In large capital cities such as Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, public now serve a minority of students in year 12. 2011 is a special year for three reasons. First, funding arrangements are under review. This process occurs every four years, but this is the most far-reaching review since 1973. In Australia, the federal government directs the largest share of school funding to private schools. At the state level, governments direct the largest share to public schools. There is fierce public debate. Should private receive any public funding, given that public are in such a fragile state? Assuming that they should, what should be the share of each sector, and how should that share be determined? To what extent should private be held accountable for how they use public funds? How should the federal and state governments divide responsibility for funding schools? The federal government has appointed a review panel chaired by David Gonski, a former board member of a private school. Abandoning funding for high-fee, independent is unlikely since a proposal along these lines was a factor in Labor's defeat in the 2004 federal election. It is also unlikely that recommendations and their implementation will calm the waters; the debate is likely to continue indefinitely. The second reason for national and international interest concerns transparency and accountability. As reported in this column in 2010, the performance of all public and private is available on the My School web site (www.myschool.edu.au). The web site reports student performance on national tests of literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) and basic descriptive and demographic data. But the web site also reports the performance of each school in years 3, 5, 7, and 9 and compares them to like schools anywhere in the country and in the same geographic location. The March 2011 version reports changes in performance of students who took the exams two years ago, thus providing a value-added measure for each school. Significantly, the report for each school describes its sources of revenue and the current state of its finances. …