As the community swings its support behind public education, governments need to boost their commitment to school funding and promotion. Krista Mogensen reports.

Education is back as the number one electoral issue. Vigorous campaigning by the AEU and the wider community has made public education a priority for Labor governments returned in the recent Victorian and NSW state elections. The focus now is on those governments delivering on their election promises and the raft of issues relating to the future of public education. Around the nation, key issues include class sizes and teacher retention, as well as welfare support for primary schools and access to preschool education. And cutting to the heart of the matter is funding and, in particular, the funding imbalance between government and private schools.

“Keeping the pressure on the government will be quite critical,” says Mary Bluett, AEU's Victorian Branch President. “We have a sense that the Bracks government is committed to public education. Our campaign now is about how we get the rhetoric into proper resourcing,” she says.

In NSW, the Vinson inquiry into public education, co-funded by the NSWTF, has helped shape a new education agenda. Its final report criticised Australia's low public investment in public education—now ranked 22nd out of 29 OECD countries—and it called for wide-ranging reforms in the way education is delivered and supported. The inquiry has helped galvanise community opinion in favour of public education and, along with it, more overt support from government. The re-elected premier, Bob Carr, is on public record as saying, “Our teachers do magnificent work and the contribution they make to our society is immeasurable”.

The NSW Teachers' Federation says the community recognises it is legitimate to expect and demand that governments provide the resources and educational policies to support public education.

“There's community acceptance that it's right to draw a line in the sand and say class sizes are too big, for example, because kids are slipping through. Teachers are campaigning on these issues because they care about kids, which is overwhelmingly why they're doing the job they're doing,” says Bluett.

Funding at the heart

The rhetoric may be a good start, but there is justifiable concern about whether it translates. According to Queensland Teachers' Union President Julie-Ann McCullough, the state government runs all the right lines and arguments, but it's often “froth and bubble” (see 'The smart state', right).

“Obviously there's some good stuff happening—we still have a fantastic public education system. But when it comes down to the crunch, the policy may be sound, but the actual implementation and delivery will be flawed if there's not the [financial] support that should be provided,” says McCullough.

Clearly, the current Federal Government policy that sees 65 per cent of its schools funding going to the 30 per cent of students in private schools is wrong. “We know that private schools will receive some funds,” says Bluett, “but the funding imbalance needs to be fixed.”

An unfair competition

According to research conducted by the AEU, enrolment trends over the past two decades in government schools show a declining share of enrolments across all years. The private schools share has increased by a total of around seven per cent in this period, an average annual increase of 0.39 per cent. “The overall increase in student numbers has gone into private schools,” says AEU Federal Research Officer Roy Martin.

In instances where public education programs have been funded, supported and marketed, however, the community's confidence has returned. In Victoria, the focus on smaller class sizes in Prep to year 2, “combined with a real promotion around literacy and numeracy has caught the public interest,” says Bluett. “We have actually seen the start of a drift—a larger share of the student population in government schools at the primary level,” she says.

The capacity and willingness of governments to market public education will become critical in the next decade when student numbers fall. “Between now and 2012, there'll be a huge decline in numbers because our birth rate is falling. Competition will intensify,” says Martin.

The fight for public education has a long way to go. “We need to get to the point where we get governments investing because it makes sense and it's important,” says Bluett. “It's about seeing education as an investment rather than a cost.”

Social cohesion and democracy

A strong public education system is essential if Australia is to be socially democratic and socially just. According to the OECD, social cohesion is “the greatest prize” and leads to citizens becoming more effective participants in democracy, civilisation and the economic process.

The ethos of public education is to cater fairly to everyone, says Martin. “The private schools claim they capture the high values, yet in fact they are exclusionary. They go for the narrower values,” he says.

The qualities that define Australia—a 'fair go', of being socially cohesive and inclusive—are embedded in a robust public education system. Importantly, the public education system is the home of innovation as well as leadership on gender issues, multiculturalism, and educating students with disabilities.

“I think the test of public education is the value that we add to the students that we have,” says Bluett. “And promoting cohesion, respect for diversity and conflict resolution—they're things we do very, very well in government schools.