Page 3553 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 15 November 2006
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carefully what was in her original motion, which she has brought back in a further amendment, that is, that she says that the decline in the number of students enrolling in ACT government schools cannot be accounted for simply by demographic shifts. She went on to say in her motion that the proportion of students enrolling in non-government schools is increasing.
If we were contracting here, being like some parts of Europe after the wars where the numbers started to shrink, you would say that there is no way that we are going to be able to sustain this level of demand. Where this whole issue all falls apart is with the number of people who are desperately trying to get into the non-government schools. I would express great scepticism with the view that people are doing it because they want a religious education. Sure, there are people who want a religious education, but I have two children in the Catholic system, or one about to go in and one already in, and I have two other children who have been through the system within the Catholic framework, so I have seen a lot of the parents and attended lots of events and I would like to tell you that they are there because they are looking for a Catholic education, but I am afraid that there are many other factors that are driving the decision in the main.
The argument was also advanced that people think that if they are paying more for something it must be better. Again, that really does not stack up with the Catholic system. It used to amaze me when I would get a bill for the school fees for my boys at St Anthony’s in Wanniassa. I thought the school fees were not much better than a couple of good meals at the local club. People used to baulk and scream about paying that level of fees, but no-one will tell me that they thought they were paying all this extra money and they were getting this superior product because it was very expensive. It was not expensive. It was a very small fee take. I still think that the fees that are payable for education, compared to what people have to pay for DVDs, flat screen TVs, luxury cars and all the other household items, are in the main a cheap shout.
The argument is pretty thin that they are paying all this money out because they think they are getting some exotic product. I suspect that the concerns—and I am relying on anecdotal evidence, just as I am suggesting the government is—probably strike at the broad quality of the product they are enjoying. Parents in this town in the main are from double-income households, which means that the morning is probably, if it is anything like my home, a fairly hectic time when you have got the issue of people getting to work and also getting kids to school.
According to the February 2006 ABS data, in the order of 48 per cent of high school students in the ACT were enrolled in non-government schools. The inconvenience that that may represent for families in this city in travelling across Canberra to get their kids to school or to ensure that they make the appropriate transport connections is a factor that would suggest to you that they are willing to inconvenience themselves considerably because they believe there is something superior about the product or, conversely, that they have some grave misgivings about the quality of the public school product.
I do not want to condemn all public schools and say that they are no good, that the only way you can get a decent education is to go to a Catholic school, a private school
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