Transcript Slide 1

Howard’s 2006 Australia Day Speech
Australian
history taught
without any
sense of
structured
narrative…”
“
… a fragmented stew of themes
and issues
… dominated by Marxist,
feminist or Green interpretations
of history
… history teachers have
succumbed to a postmodern
culture of relativism where any
objective record of achievement is
questioned or repudiated
Whatever happened to Captain Cook?
New Federal Education
Minister vows to reverse the
tide of political correctness
that has swept Captain
James Cook, who claimed
Australia for the British
crown in 1770, and other
European ‘colonisers’ from
the national school
curriculum.
...our classrooms need to make a date
with the facts...
•too much political bias
•not enough pivotal facts
and dates
There will be a radical
overhaul of the way history
is taught which will see a
return to the narrative form
of history free of political
interpretation
• a "narrative"
approach to the
subject
• based on dates and
facts
• a record of
achievements
• a new "coalition of
the willing" to make
this happen
“The Howard Government: Ten
Years of Achievement for
Australia”
Australian Value
#5
Honesty and
Trustworthiness
Be honest, sincere
and seek the truth
The Howard Government: Ten Years of
Achievement for Australia
• March 2 1996: First
Howard Government
elected
• First Howard Cabinet:
Minister for Schools,
Vocational Education and
Training, and Minister
Assisting the Minister for
Finance for Privatisation
Hon Dr David Kemp, MP
The Context of the Times
•Howard Government came to power in the decade
of GATS and trade agreements intent on opening
up all Government services, including education,
to foreign-based corporate competition
•Of the world's 100 largest economies, 47 are now
transnational corporations. That means that about
136 countries are substantially smaller than the
giant companies - like Mitsubishi, American
Express, Cargill and Northern Telecom
•Value of the global education ‘market’ approx
$2trillion pa
The Context of the Times
Key Institutions:
•
•
•
•
The World Bank
IMF
World Trade Organisation
Chicago School of Economics
Political and economic life dominated by:
•
•
•
•
•
Corporate globalisation
Commercialisation
Privatisation
Deregulation
Market principles applied to education,
health etc – competition is all
• Massive transfers of wealth
Howard’s Productivity Commission
• first Productivity Commission Report 1996: Stocktake of
Progress in Microeconomic Reform
• education section relied heavily on the World Bank’s
1995 publication: Policies and Strategies for Education
• main theme – a rejection of the idea that education
should be treated differently from what it called ‘normal
goods and services’ because of what it dismissed as
“equity and social justice objectives”
• concern for equity ‘”no excuse not to apply economic
concepts like productivity, incentives and competition to
service delivery in education”
• provided the ideological rationale for the increasingly
aggressive war against government schools and the most
massive transfer of school funding in Australian history
• argued strongly for reducing the distinction between
public and private education
• insisted on competition between public and private
education to ‘encourage value for money in service
delivery’ through “implementing funding arrangements
which give clients the freedom to choose between
providers, and give providers the flexibility to respond to
those preferences”
1996
Funding Category
Primary rate/student
Secondary
rate/student
1
$ 466
$ 740
2
$ 622
$ 981
3
$ 778
$1,137
4
$ 947
$1,492
5
$1,120
$1,630
6
$1,240
$1,809
7
$1,362
$1,986
8
$1,496
$2,189
9
$1,638
$2,401
10
$1,756
$2,567
11
$1,882
$2,747
12
$2,014
$2,492
1999
Funding Category
Primary rate/student
Secondary
rate/student
1
$ 525
$ 832
2
$ 700
$1,103
3
$ 875
$1,279
4
$1,065
$1,677
5
$1,284
$1,871
6
$1,419
$2,071
7
$1,556
$2,269
8
$1,714
$2,508
9
$1,924
$2,816
10
$2,082
$3,040
11
$2,255
$3,288
12
$2,437
$3,560
Category 1 and 2 Schools 1996-1999
Funding
Category
1996
1999
Pembroke
2
$1,297,840
$1,492,771
PAC
1
$ 576,674
$ 678,309
Pulteney
2
$ 629,426
$ 625,312
Scotch
1
$ 586,636
$ 657,772
Seymour
1
$ 348,982
$ 457,732
St Peters
1
$ 694,394
$ 822,610
Walford
2
$ 594,424
$ 681,935
Wilderness
1
$ 412,297
$ 416,592
Funding ‘Choice’
• Increases through the Enrolment Benchmark
Adjustment
• Introduced by Kemp in 1996 Budget
• Loss to public schools of almost $128 million
between 1996 and 2001




$11.9 million in 1998
$21.1 million in 1999
$43.5 million in 2000
$51.3 million in 2001
• 3 October 1998 Second Howard Government elected
David Kemp remains as Education Minister
• 10th November 2001 Third Howard Government elected
Brendan Nelson becomes Federal Minister for Education
• 9th October 2004 Fourth Howard Government elected
Nelson remains as Education Minister
• January 2006 – ministerial reshuffle – Julie Bishop
becomes Education Minister
• EBA replaced by SES funding model in
2001
• Heavily biased to the wealthiest schools
• Establishment Grants [1999 →]to
encourage the growth of new private
schools
• Over 60% of new schools have 60 or less
students – no assessment of long-term
viability
1996-2005
1996
2005
Increase
% increase
Pembroke
$1,297,840
$5,045,553
$3,747,713
289%
PAC
$ 576,674
$2,420,620
$1,843,946
320%
Pulteney
$ 629,426
$2,158,547
$1,529,121
243%
Scotch
$ 586,636
$1,792,234
$1,205,598
206%
Seymour
$ 348,982
$1,568,868
$1,219,886
350%
St Peters
$ 694,394
$2,663,971
$1,969,577
284%
Walford
$ 594,424
$1,464,492
$ 870,068
255%
Wilderness
$ 412,297
$1,667,288
$1,254,991
304%
“… funding increases are
enrolment driven”
Australian Value # 6
Integrity Act in accordance
with principles of moral and
ethical conduct, ensure
consistency between words
and deeds
Prince Alfred College 1996-2005
funding
$3,000,000.00
$2,500,000.00
$2,000,000.00
$1,500,000.00
funding
$1,000,000.00
$500,000.00
$1996
2005
Prince Alfred College 1996-2005
enrolment
940
920
900
880
enrolment
860
840
820
800
1996
2005
Scotch College 1996-2005
funding
enrolment
$2,000,000.00
920
$1,800,000.00
900
880
$1,600,000.00
860
840
$1,400,000.00
$1,200,000.00
$1,000,000.00
funding
$800,000.00
820
800
enrolment
780
760
$600,000.00
$400,000.00
740
720
$200,000.00
$-
700
1996
2005
1996
2005
Walford 1996-2005
funding
enrolment
$1,600,000.00
$1,400,000.00
$1,200,000.00
$1,000,000.00
$800,000.00
funding
$600,000.00
$400,000.00
$200,000.00
$1996
2005
670
660
650
640
630
620
610
600
590
580
570
560
enrolment
1996
2005
School
1996
Enrol
2005
Enrol
Change
% Change
1996
Fed Rec $
2005
Fed $$
Change
%
Change
Annesley
700
431
-269
-38%
$712,755
$1,423,586
$710,831
100%
Pembroke
1515
1476
-39
-3%
$1,297,840
$5,045,553
$3,747,713
289%
PAC
917
843
-74
-8%
$576,674
$2,420,620
$1,843,946
320%
Pulteney
697
717
20
3%
$629,426
$2,158,547
$1,529,121
243%
Scotch
896
770
-126
-14%
$586,636
$1,792,234
$1,205,598
206%
Seymour
576
683
107
19%
$348,982
$1,568,868
$1,219,886
350%
St Peters
1076
1079
3
0.2%
$694,394
$2,663,971
$1,969,577
284%
Walford
661
600
-61
-9%
$594,424
$1,464,492
$870,068
146%
Westminster
969
1051
82
8%
$988,129
$3,508,681
$2,520,552
255%
Wilderness
543
588
45
8%
$412,297
$1,667,288
$1,254,991
304%
Funding ‘Choice’
The Diminishing Public School Share of Commonwealth Funding
70%
65%
60%
55%
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
77 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 000 001 -03 -04 -05 -06 -07
9
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2 02 03 04 05 06
20 20 20 20 20
GS%
NGS%
Enrolment Share
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
GS
NGS
1963 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2003 2005
or to put it another way …
…or another
Sectarian and divisive politics of envy?
OR
The politics of exclusion and inequality?
Public Schools on the Skids
• Literacy and numeracy are in decline
• Australia is falling behind internationally
• Our schools aren't turning out scientists
and mathematicians
• Schools aren’t turning out kids with the
right skills for the workforce – threatening
Australia’s economy and ability to be
competitive in an era of economic
globalisation
• Rise in obesity of primary school children
because they’re taught by middle-aged
female teachers who aren’t into PE
• Boys are failing because there are (a) not
enough male teacher/role models in
primary school and (b) too many feminist
teachers/middle-aged women past their
use by date
MARATHON man Robert
de Castella warns John
Howard that the typical
profile of “ageing female''
primary school teachers is
contributing to the nation's
obesity epidemic.
Backing the Howard
Government's push to hire
more male teachers, de
Castella tells the Prime
Minister's Science,
Engineering and Innovation
Council that many middleaged women are
uncomfortable with “kicking
around a soccer ball''.
“It's extremely important
that we get more young
people, and young blokes
especially, into primary
schools so they can pick up a
footy and get out there and
kick it around with the boys
and the girls,'' Mr Nelson
said.
Education Minister
Brendan Nelson
backs the comments,
saying 80per cent of
primary school
teachers are women
and one in three are
over 45.
• Dropout rates are terrible
• Conspiracy of silence to prevent parents
receiving information about school
performance
• Public schools, teachers and principals are
“failing” - desperately opposed to
accountability measures which will reveal
how hopeless they are
• Marxist, feminist or Green history
teachers fail to teach the facts – too much
political bias and not enough pivotal facts
and dates being taught in public schools
• public schools are ‘values-free zones’
and/or “too political”
• must be forced to teach values of care and
compassion; integrity; doing your best;
respect; fair go; responsibility; freedom;
understanding, tolerance and inclusion;
honesty and trustworthiness
In summary
• Direct attacks on public schools and educators, values,
cultural tolerance, understanding ….
• Decade of funding arrangements which have seen a
massive transfer of public funds to the private school
sector
• Preferential treatment of private schools/sector
• Shifting costs to students and families
• Instrumentalist view of education/curriculum
• Attack on the professionalism of teachers and principals
• All within general context of widening social and
economic inequality
A Voice from the Past
The language, the directions, and the
practices of our work are being thoroughly
appropriated by the economic and
technocratic rationalists. These ‘barbarians’
have undertaken a massive, deliberate, and
systematic process of undermining, and
then dismantling public education. Right
across the public sector there is a process of
‘legalised looting’ of our public utilities
(including our schools and education
systems) as they are systemically stripped
and prepared for a massive fire sale to the
private sector, at bargain basement
prices…..
By the time the restructuring of education is
complete, public education as we know and
experience it, will no longer exist. Gone will
be universal, equitably resourced, quality
public education, and in its place will be a
variety of franchised stand-alone
institutions, competing against one another
for students and shrinking resources. What
the so-called ‘consumers’ of education will
get, will depend even more than in the past,
on a capacity to pay.
The Future?
Education Professor Emeritus Arthur G. Wirth of Washington University on
the future of education in America:
Well- educated elites will withdraw further into
their secure enclaves, living a life with excellent
health care, challenging work, effective schools,
global travel, and international electronic
linkages. The urban and rural poor will live
largely out of sight in their decaying communities.
The despair and hopelessness of their children will
be facts of life.
HOPE
The Importance of Campaigning and
Collective Action
•Asylum seeker/refugee campaign
•ACTU IR campaign
Some ‘Coalitions of the Willing’ I’d
like to see
• Coalition for Responsible Assessment
• Coalition for Genuine Accountability
• Coalition for Fair Funding of Public
Schools
• ?
• ?
The better we educate ourselves about
these issues, the more we talk about
the possibilities of organising society
around human needs, the more
connections we draw with other
sectors of society as they struggle for
justice, the more likely it is that we will
build the capacity to revitalise our
embattled schools and our unions.
Bob Peterson rethinkingschools.org