news
Bully bill debated
US anti-bullying bill may be masking
privatisation agenda, critics say.
A
bill sitting in Florida’s senate after being passed by
its house of representatives would give bullied kids
a second chance.
Known as the Hope Scholarship Program, it provides them
with an opportunity to transfer to another public school, or
to request a scholarship to enrol in and attend an eligible
private school, if they are subjected to an “incident of battery;
harassment; hazing; bullying; kidnapping; physical attack;
robbery; sexual offenses, harassment, assault or battery; threat
or intimidation; or fighting at school”.
Richard Corcoran, speaker of the Florida house of
representatives, explained his support for the bill. “Those
children are forced day in and day out to go back to that
school where they are subject to violence and abuse. And
what we have learned is that where there is intimidation
and violence and abuse, that child’s learning pretty much
ceases to exist.”
Though the bill has an anti-bullying focus, politicians have
jumped on another aspect of it: scholarships. Since these will
be state-subsidised, bill opponents argue that the program will
drain much-needed funds from public schools. Representative
Loranne Ausley, a Democratic politician from Tallahassee,
Florida, went as far as to say that this is the bill’s real intent.
“I’m not the first person to suggest that proponents of this
approach won’t be satisfied until our education system has
been entirely privatised,” she said.
American public schools are generally free, while private
schools are expensive, costing $10,000 per year on average.
Regardless, as an anti-bullying measure, Ausley doesn’t think
the Hope Scholarship Program is useful, as it doesn’t address
the bullying’s root cause. So she offered an alternative: “Why
don’t we take these resources and put them into existing anti-
bullying programs and to providing social workers, guidance
counsellors and after-school programs that can support all of
our kids in every single public school?” ■
The next level
Southern Cross Grammar
fulfils dream of opening
new VCE facility.
2 | educationreview.com.au
A
fter bouncing back from the
collapse of parent companies
Independent Colleges Australia
and ABC Learning in 2011, Victoria’s
Southern Cross Grammar is set to unveil a
new school facility dedicated to Victorian
Certificate of Education studies.
The new facility, which is scheduled to
open on Friday 16 March, was designed
to support the transition fr