Friday, April 5, 2013

Blog 8: Australia's New Funding for Schools


Australian David Gonski noticed that there were some gaps in the funding for the states of this country when it dealt with education. He was working with the Federal Government to review what needed to be changed with the education funding or the system as a whole. He noticed that the country as a whole is not putting the adequate amount of money into education. He also noticed that some states get more funding for their schools than other poorer places. The review of the funding of education was completed in 2011 and this was a eye opener for most people. The most important gap that was seen in this review is that there is a gap between the achievements of students in different states. Some students were not at the same level of reading as other students the same age that were in richer schools. In the article it talks about if Australia does not put in action the reform that Gonski created that the public schools would get 390 million dollars less next year. There was one man, John-Paul Langbroek, who was not fond of the new funding. It talked about in the article how he was going to change the workplace agreements so the teachers and other school officials could not protest the new funding for education. The article explains that Mr. Langbroek is also the Queensland Minister of Education, and yet he still does not want any changes in the school system in his area.

It was a surprise that a country like Australia could have big problems like this and keep it hidden for so long. It was time that something changed for those students in the different states. It is a shame that students are not on the same playing field with their education because the funding was not fair. The article does not talk about why people decided to create this reform now, which would have been very important to talk about. When reading the article it just seems very random that a businessman and the Federal Government decided to change problems in the funding this year. The consequence of not following through with this reform is very serious to the life of the public schools. It looks like there could be something done other than taking that much money away from them. Some areas don’t have enough funds to begin with so why take more money away from them? In the article it explains the one man who does not want a new reform to happen. The article should have explained his reasoning for not liking the new reform. He could have had a very good reason why he did not want his area to be affected by the reform. Overall it may be time that Australia changes some things in their education so that everyone has an equal chance.  

Source:
Australia: education funding reform in jeopardy

Ashley Roberts
4/5/2013
11:03 am


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