Page 3654 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 8 December 1992
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be a view among some of the parents of pupils in non-government schools that they want the same level of funding, or very close to it, that goes into government schools. I believe that that is flawed logic. Then they are quite happy to top that up with additional resources that they have the ability to put in, in most cases. So, we would have a very different system, with the government school sector very much the poor cousin.
The question of the balance between the funding of government schools and non-government schools will always remain a difficult problem. It is that sort of thing that I would have been much happier to debate in some detail tonight. At the present moment in the ACT, and what happens here is not too different from what happens in the States, there is a proportion government versus non-government. That has been established over many years by political processes, often not based on anything other than political issues at the time. It is based also, and substantially, on needs of schools, and that remains the basis of Labor Party policy.
Mr Cornwell: What about freedom of choice?
MR WOOD: Wait on. It remains that non-government schools will be funded basically according to their needs. That is what started it when Whitlam first provided the funds back in 1972 or whenever. There was the near collapse of a very large segment of non-government schools, and needs remain the basis. I think we need to continue that debate and maybe determine, at some stage, whether the ratio, the balance, is really based on logic or not but we will not pursue that tonight.
Mr Cornwell suggested that freedom of choice is a factor. I think that has been misrepresented sometimes by the non-government sector. The ACT Government, like the Federal Government, acknowledges the dual system of education and the right of parents to choose the school of their choice. It is sometimes presented to me that because of the high fees at the grammar schools there is no freedom of choice. Well, there is not a freedom of choice. Most parents cannot afford to send their children there. Providing non-government schools does not necessarily, for many parents, expand the freedom of choice. That may not be the case with the Catholic sector that generally provides a comparable range of facilities.
Mr Cornwell: The same argument could be put forward if you cannot get into the school either.
MR WOOD: That is the sort of debate I would like to have. We did not quite have it tonight. Maybe another time.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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