Sorting out the parties in the Federal Election

By

Gary Zadkovich

An assessment of the education policies of Labor, the Coalition and Greens.

Federation has analysed the major political parties' education policies available to date for the August 21 Federal Election. Of course, more policies may be announced as the election campaign proceeds.

While Labor and the Coalition continue to converge at the market-based, choice and competition end of the education policy spectrum, the Greens again stand out for their advocacy for a well-funded public education system as the foundation of Australian society.

The review of funding for schooling

The Greens and Labor deserve credit for supporting the schools funding review being conducted through 2010 into next year. The Greens go further than Labor by advocating that public schools deserve greater government investment in a new recurrent funding model.

The Coalition supports the continuation of the discredited and corrupted Howard government funding model. Education spokesperson Christopher Pyne revealed the Coalition's position in a speech to the Christian Schools National Policy Forum (May 25, 2010). He said: "...the next Coalition government will take up the reins where the Howard government left off...

BER, DER, national partnerships and Trade Training Centres

Federal Labor deserves credit for its unprecedented investment in schools. Even though the economic stimulus package was prompted by the global financial crisis, public school teachers generally appreciate that our schools have benefitted from Labor's investment in capital works, maintenance, technology and teaching/learning programs.

While the controversial NSW Director-General, Michael Coutts-Trotter, has deservedly been criticised for his flawed implementation plan that eroded the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program's value for money and gave rise to allegations of waste and mismanagement, Labor's investment has helped significantly in addressing the needs of long-neglected public schools.

The Greens are supportive of continuing with Labor's investments in these areas.

The Coalition has pledged to cut $3.1 billion from these programs, including $968 million from Trade Training Centres and $425 million from the National Partnership on Teacher Quality. This is an appalling display of callous disregard for the value of education to Australia's economy and society.

School league tables

Despite the bitter dispute over the 2010 NAPLAN tests, it is acknowledged that Labor agreed to a working party to develop ways to enact its commitment of "opposition to the misuse of student performance data including simplistic league tables". Federation expects Labor to honour this commitment, by ensuring that students and their communities are protected from being ranked as failures and losers in school league tables later this year.

The Greens have consistently opposed the publication of school league tables and continue to support the campaign to stop students and schools being treated this way.

While the NSW Coalition opposes league tables, their federal counterparts have not acted to prevent their compilation and publication.

TAFE

Both Labor and the Coalition continue to undermine Australia's TAFE system through competitive tendering, privatisation, casualisation, imposition of student fees and attacks on teaching and learning conditions. The Greens have made a strong stand against these attacks and support a major increase in government investment in TAFE colleges to address Australia's skills shortage.

Conclusion

The Greens continue to be the political party that best supports public education across a range of policy areas.

Labor presents a mixed policy platform. It deserves credit for significantly boosting investment in the nation's schools, and for using enrolment share and student need to allocate the bulk of this targeted funding to public schools. Labor's treatment of TAFE, however, is very disappointing. Questions remain on whether public school students will benefit from the outcomes of the Review of Funding for Schooling and from the deliberations of the NAPLAN/league tables working party.

The Coalition continues with policies that wilfully undermine public education. The federal Liberals/Nationals again show their propensity to go to extremes to delineate themselves from a Labor Government that talks about moving forward but reaches back to the education policies of Margaret Thatcher's UK government and the US governments of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Beyond the stupidity of wanting to 'NAPLAN' every student from year 3-10, consider the harm that would be caused by the Coalition's policy of rebates for private school fees. If this door is ever opened in Australian education, it will signal the demise of a public school system that is inclusive of students from across the socio-economic spectrum. If private school fees are made tax deductible, the initial rebate will be increased over time. This occurred with government funding for private schools, where the trickle of funds in the 1960s has become a flood in 2010. This approach epitomises why the Coalition rates last of the three major parties in this election.

Gary Zadkovich is the Deputy President.

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July 2010 contents