industry & reform
The outcomes were quite different in so many ways . So there are differences between the SES of young people , and there are differences between location . And in a sense , differences between sectors – private and public – but mainly created by the students that each sector enrolled . So it was a worrying time . It confirmed what we knew , and it was time that it was confirmed .
Do you think there were any major gaps left unaddressed in the report ? TG : We think the Gonski Report was commendable in so many ways , but we do argue in the book that there were fundamental issues that weren ’ t addressed . The first big one is the whole issue of unregulated private school fees .
At the time of the review , soaring fees were really a fixture of the nation ’ s newspapers . Gonski and his colleagues visited schools like Geelong Grammar or SCEGGS Darlinghurst , where fees had actually doubled in the previous 10 years , despite the fact that they ’ d been getting increased public funding .
The reason this really matters is because these fees were making those schools much harder to enter for low income families . So it ’ s producing these concentrations of disadvantaged .
Unfortunately , Gonski recommended that private schools continue to be able to increase fees as they pleased , and that ’ s what ’ s happened . Fee increases have continued to far outstretch inflation , with annual increases of about 4.5 per cent over the last decade , and this is creating these concentrations of disadvantage . The Gonski Report itself showed it was having such a harmful effect on student learning .
The other big issue is that Gonski also upheld the rights of non-Government schools to continue to apply selection tests , and expel challenging students , without any kind of regulation . There was this suggestion that it would be good for them to have welfare policies that define the most appropriate learning environments for students who are unable to remain .
But the result was , under Gonski ’ s recommendations , Australian schools continued to operate on what we call an un-level playing field , characterised by these inconsistent rules and regulations , and various levels of resourcing . Some schools take all comers , some are selective , some have an abundance of resources , others , not enough . Some are free , others can charge fees as they please .
Gonski recommended needs-based funding , and bringing every school up to a school resource standard , but the report still allowed for significant continued funding of even the wealthiest schools .
So total resourcing , public and private combined , would continue to give many non-government schools a huge resource advantage over nearby public schools . One of the reasons that really matters is that it allows those schools to advertise smaller class sizes , and a greater variety of curricula and co-curricula offerings . And that helps them recruit high performing students away from the public system .
It means that now we have one of the most segregated school systems . In fact , our schools are more segregated than in countries like Russia and Tunisia . So that tells us it ’ s not just about location , education policies and government policies – we ’ re actually sourcing young Australians into different schools according to their social background .
Chris , as a former school principal , what are the implications of segregating students like this on their academic achievement ? CB : It ’ s really critical to their success . For all the talk about students moving from one school to another , mainly from public to private , the movement of students from one school to another is up the SES ladder . In other words , parents are seeking students in higher SES schools : the sort of young people that they ’ d like their own children to be with . And that has a huge effect .
Schools are placed in circumstances where they may have a lot of struggling kids , and other schools are in circumstances where they have young people that are quite advantaged . As a principal I moved from the former , to being a principal of the latter . And my job in the school with students that came from relatively well-off homes and were aspirational was much easier . In the relatively disadvantaged school , it was always a struggle . And you worked extremely hard to try to balance the school enrolment , because you knew that with that balance , with that critical mass of aspirant kids , that that would have an impact through the whole school , around the whole issue of peer effect that Tom was talking about .
The Gonski Report concluded that our funding system was illogical , inconsistent and opaque .
The report brought forward 41 recommendations . Ten years on , what have we actually achieved ? It is incredibly complicated , but I think the thing that confounds people the most is how since Gonski funding to private schools has increased five times as much as public schools . People are saying : ‘ How on Earth did a supposedly needs-based funding system produce that result ?’
To understand , we need to recognise the starting point with the situation , where public schools receive the vast majority of their funding from state government , but the lion ’ s share of the commonwealth government funding went to private schools .
What has happened to public schools has really been most affected by state government behaviour . The first big development on that front was when Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne let the states off the hook , in that they were forced to keep their unity ticket and deliver Commonwealth Gonski funding , but they said to the states : ‘ Those agreements you signed to do your part to bring public schools up to scratch , we ’ re not going to enforce them . You can cut funding if you like .’ And guess what ? State Governments cut funding .
Schools that the Gonski panel visited which were very disadvantaged – in Queensland , in the Northern Territory , mostly indigenous kids – they actually had their funding cut per student in the years following the Gonski Review , because they were allowed to . And they got away with it .
That whole trend has been compounded in recent years , because the Morrison Government in its agreement with the states , said that the states have to contribute a certain amount to get to 75 per cent of the school resource standard , to get public schools to that level . But within that 75 per cent there ’ s a whole bunch of money which is for things like school transport , and teacher licensing bodies . So it creates a
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