蜜桃视频

7 August 2018

Much of the worth of the original Gonski Report was clouded by partisan myth-making. That same fate will befall Gonski 2.0 (Ross Gittins, 6 August; Letters, 7 August) if we fail to get the facts straight – and the facts are these.

In 2011 Gonski urged the replacement of SES score based-funding with a more accurate measure ‘as soon as possible’. Education Minister Simon Birmingham ignored this advice in Gonski 2.0, despite detailed research from the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria showing SES favoured wealthy independent schools and disquiet from think-tanks from the Grattan Institute to the Centre for Independent Studies.

The independent Chaney Review of SES backed our stand. Senator Birmingham now has to fix a problem of his own making, while the independent schools lobby must honour its rhetoric supporting ‘consistent and equitable’ funding while acknowledging ‘achieving this objective … is impossible without some schools … being adversely impacted’.

The CECV looks forward to working with the government to replace SES scores with a better measure of need by 2020, as recommended by Chaney.

With fairer funding in place all school sectors will then be able, as Mr Gittins urges, to concentrate on quality – from the same starting point.

Mr Stephen Elder
Executive Director
Catholic Education Melbourne