I didn’t send my first born kid to a public school because it’s free. He goes to a public school because his parents believe that kids should grow up with a range of peers, not just the ones who look, speak and live like them and because we don’t believe in religion in education.
The fact that we were committed to a public school education was a happy relief; should we have wanted to send our kid to a private school, we would have had about the same chance financially as buying a new Lamborghini to do the school run.
In the lead up to his first year, we did a tour of local public primary schools. In our local government area there are suburbs that have large numbers of public and community housing. There are also areas in which you can find some of the most expensive real estate in the world. To put it bluntly, the wealth disparity is as wide as the Grand Canyon.
On our tours, it became very quickly apparent that the end of the socioeconomic spectrum in which the schools are located dictates, to a large degree, the quality of the facilities those students enjoy.
My family’s experience of seeing the starkness of those disparities is just a microcosm of the issues reported on by Guardian Australia this week.
Our school was built in 1875 and has almost 500 students. It has undergone continuous upgrades and work to increase capacity to keep up with demand. In the 1960s, this led to the construction of a “temporary” light timber classroom block. That block is still there and filled with kids. It’s not just the buildings either.
Last year a fellow parent made a complaint to the school when their daughter brought home a book entitled Mum’s Diet. “‘I’m too fat’, said mum”, the book started. Library funding? Apparently there’s not much left over for that.
In addition to the disparities between public schools who aren’t getting enough government funds to make ends meet, there’s also the truly baffling status quo that sees private schools get more government funding than public.
If any kids are going to be funded more per capita in any setting, surely it should be those who need it the most?
According to reports last year, from 2012 to 2021 funding to independent and Catholic schools rose by 34% and 31% respectively, while funding to public schools increased by just 17%. As the story noted, the funding actually appears to be flowing to the people who need it the least.
As school infrastructure ages with each year that goes by, these issues grow more acute, more urgent. The same could be said for hospital infrastructure and investment. Education and health are two pieces of social infrastructure that represent the backbone on which our society is built. Is there anything significantly more important?
A dear friend of mine who went to a private school went on to dedicate herself to teaching in the public secondary system for more than 20 years, primarily in an area with severely marginalised communities. “It’s extraordinarily upsetting and frustrating to see the outrageous disparity between the quality of care that the government and the broader community give to these kids,” they said. “It entrenches the worst kind of classism. And the most heartbreaking thing about it, is that it could be rectified tomorrow.”
Investment in schools has multiple areas of benefit. Not in order of importance, the first is economic as more people are employed to complete capital and improvement works and more funding for staff means more teachers are employed. The second benefit is the significant social benefits. School graduates tend to be “healthier; they are less likely to need public income supports; and they are less likely to be involved in the criminal justice system”.
Investment in capital works for schools can also benefit the wider community. School ovals mean more community sport, upgrades to school playgrounds means better facilities in which kids can play outside school hours, learning centres can be used for vocational training outside school hours.
As we wait for the federal government to decide to pour more funding into public schools, despite much evidence to show its benefits, parents are left to pick up the bill for upgrades through community fundraising or optional additional school contributions.
And there are areas where parents can afford to do that. But with the cost of living soaring and interest rate hikes leading to severe housing stress in a market that was already under pressure, fewer parents are going to be able to assist in bridging that gap.
There are also many areas, especially in regional and remote geographies, where parents have never been able to pour money into a system that’s supposed to be free.
And I should add, it’s not just supposed to be free, it’s supposed to be free and meet basic minimum standards, which don’t include mould in bathrooms and sagging ceilings.
It’s long past time to ensure that all kids are getting their education in facilities that meet basic minimum standards and give them the best start to their lives.
Isabelle Oderberg is a journalist, editor, writer and media professional. She is chair of the Early Pregnancy Loss Coalition. Her first book is titled Hard to Bear: Investigating the science and silence of miscarriage
