Graham Matthews, Melbourne
A Victorian government survey of 2003 year 12 graduates has confirmed that less than 34% of students from public schools entered university, compared with 67% of students from private schools, which are being increasingly subsidised by the federal government.
The On Track survey, carried out by Melbourne University's Professor Richard Teese, found that the average proportion of government school graduates attending university was even lower in the poorer (often Labor-held) electorates. In Batman in Melbourne's northern suburbs (held by Labor's Martin Ferguson), for example, the average enrolment of year 12 graduates from public schools in university is only 23%. From two other public schools, enrolment in university was as low as 8%.
Speaking to ABC Radio National's AM program on July 26, Teese said: "What today's figures show is that the federal government is basically subsidising the high end of the social system and the high end of the education system and its most influential users. I hate to be blunt, but the gap is so great that it's almost impossible to mistake the impact of the funding bias achieved through federal government policy."
The study also found that there was an increased proportion of school leavers from rural Victoria who failed to take up university positions. Teese blamed the increasing cost of university for falling acceptance levels. "It's becoming more and more expensive for young people to get into higher education in particular, and there [are] more and more doubts in their minds whether they can manage the long-term costs, as well the opportunity costs of going onto any form of tertiary education."
The limited participation of public school graduates in the university system was "overwhelmingly the result of the government's funding of private schools", Brian Henderson, Victorian vice-president of the Australian Education Union told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly. "The AEU wants government funding taken from the wealthy private schools and redirected to needy public schools. What the federal government's education policy is doing is widening the gap between rich and poor in this society."
"A decent, well-funded, public education system is the cornerstone of a fair and decent society", Teresa Foard, a secondary school teacher and Teachers Alliance convener told GLW. "What these latest figures show is that the government is not interested in such a society, that is, one in which all young people have the opportunity to access a university education if they so choose."
The Teachers Alliance is a caucus of left-wing members of the AEU that advocates that the union take up a militant fight for public school teachers' wages and conditions and that it campaign for massive increases in government funding for the public education system.
"The Teachers Alliance is working through the AEU to defend public education against funding attacks that translate into Australia rating 25th out of the 28 countries in the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] in terms of funding to its public education system", said Foard.
"The On Track survey confirms what students and young people generally already know", Zoe Kenny, a student and the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Melbourne, told GLW. "The cost of education is rising, the government benefit paid to students is falling in real terms, and government funding is being channelled to the benefit of the most wealthy schools.
"The Howard government is making it harder, not easier, for young people from less wealthy backgrounds to get a start on university, let alone get a degree. It just adds further fuel to the Socialist Alliance's demand that government funding for all private schools end, and that university fees of all kinds are abolished."
The Socialist Alliance advocates an end to government funding for all private schools. It calls for HECS and all up-front university fees to be abolished, and for massively increased funding to public schools, universities and colleges.
"The Socialist Alliance also argues for an end to the $50 billion spending spree on new military hardware that the federal government has embarked upon", said Kenny. "The savings would easily fill any holes left from the abolition of HECS and the institution of free education."
[Graham Matthews is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Batman.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 4, 2004.
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