Parents declare war with the Australian Education Union
Australian Parents Council Inc
The National Federation of Organisations Representing
Parents of Students in Non-government Schools
MEDIA RELEASE
DATE: 25 October 2010
SUBJECT: Parents declare war with the Australian Education Union
CONTACT: Ian Dalton, Executive Director PHONE: 0411 255 418
"The parents of students attending Australia's non-government schools won't tolerate the Australian Education Union's continuing efforts to disseminate distorted and misleading school funding information," according to the executive director of the Australian Parents Council, Mr Ian Dalton. "If Angelo Gavrielatos and the AEU are intent on running a funding campaign based on ideology and distortion of facts they will have a fight on their hands," he added.
Mr Dalton continued, "The AEU continues to talk about the woes of the public education system in this country while in the same breath referring to the supposedly favourable funding of non-government schools - with the deliberate intention of blaming the public education sector's woes on funding for the non-government sector.
"The latest available figures show that an average of $12,639 was spent on the recurrent costs of educating each student in Australia's government schools in 2007-2008, which was all provided by the Federal and state and territory governments.
"However, an average of only $10,893 was spent on the recurrent costs of educating students in non-government schools, including those students attending high fee independent schools. The figure includes an average contribution by parents and families of $4,286 (40 per cent).
"Average recurrent expenditure per student across the whole non-government sector is $1,800 less than in the government sector.
"Why isn't the AEU asking questions about why the already huge expenditure on government schools is apparently so grossly inefficient in resourcing students and teachers? Why does the AEU see fit to claim that non-government schools are better resourced than government schools when non-government schools are generally operating on a lower financial resource base? Do they expect governments to simply continue to throw taxpayer dollars at public schooling systems that would appear to be grossly inefficient?
"APC strongly supports the need for a high quality, free public education system. However, if the Australian Education Union really wants a debate on the issue of school funding that is going to be useful and have an outcome that's in the best interests of the students attending government schools and their teachers then the debate needs to be informed by facts, not by the continued spreading of myths and innuendos that seek to discredit the non-government school sector," Mr Dalton concluded.
ENDS
Figures in this media release are sourced from the MCEECDYA National Report on Schooling in Australia 2008 - Additional Statistics on Schooling
