A culture war over public and private schools fails everyone

There is a legitimate debate to be had about the distribution of education funding and the efficacy of the Gonski reforms in NSW, but the incendiary suggestion from the leader of the state system that Catholic and independent schools may have no place is almost Trumpian in its isolationism.

NSW Education Department secretary Murat Dizdar put his foot in his mouth when quoted in an article previewing the ABC’s Australian Story saying the existence of private schools “needs to be debated and discussed”. Hours before the episode aired on Monday, he seemed to realise the folly and ameliorated his comments, saying they were not intended to disrespect colleagues in Catholic and independent schools, and recognised their role in NSW education.

Murat Dizdar said the existence of private schools needed to be “debated and discussed”.Credit: Rhett Wyman

But the two sectors Dizdar had traduced were not amused.

The chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, questioned Dizdar’s vision, saying it put a question mark over the role and future of non-government schools. The chief executive of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, Margery Evans, curtly said it was “unconstructive to yearn for an overseas education model that never existed in this country”.

Trying to erase independent and systemic schools has a dismal record. The Council for the Defence of Government Schools noisily opposed state aid to private schools until it lost a landmark 1981 High Court case after erroneously arguing funding of religious schools contravened the Constitution.

While almost all state school funding comes from the states, and almost all private school funding comes from the Commonwealth and fees, the paucity of funding public schools continues with states and territories failing to implement the needs-based Gonski reforms they signed up to 13 years ago.

One consequence in NSW is the public system faces declining enrolment as parents, many of them newly arrived migrants with aspirations for their children, increasingly leave the public school system for private and Catholic schools, driven in part by better academic outcomes, stricter discipline and concerns about violence. With new suburbs opening to absorb the increasing population, private and Catholic schools have moved in to fill the void left by state governments’ failures to provide adequate infrastructure, including primary and secondary schools. NSW recorded its worst year for public school enrolments last year and has lost roughly 25,000 enrolments over the past three years.

Arguing over private education will not help recoup 25,000 enrolments, build confidence in the state system or pull lost enrolments back into the public system.

But there are models of what can be done. On Monday, the Herald reported on the extraordinary success of Balgowlah Boys High School, which 16 years ago was struggling to push enrolments above 380. The arrival of a new principal prompted a remarkable turnaround and the school now rates among the top HSC English results and has tripled enrolments.

Instead of creating a culture war, Dizdar would better serve NSW by having his department focus on lifting academic results, increasing students’ sense of belonging, and concentrating on teacher quality and training.

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