The Right To A Free Education
We sponsor a number of children in poverty stricken countries and one of the things the groups that run these sponsorship programs do is ensure as many children as possible have access to education.
After all, a decent education can be a ticket to freedom from poverty for these children.
Education gives them a hope and a future.
Yet, here in one of the “luckiest countries in the world”, why do we not place a higher sense of importance on funding education?
Every time I turn around, it seems like the government have cut funding from this program or that program.
Cutting back funding for basics like electricity, even though the increased use of technology means we are using more electricity.
Cutting funding for teaching numbers and support staff hours even though research has shown the benefits of smaller class sizes and one to one support and instruction time.
Placing emphasis on “super schools” and ignoring the rest of the students in the state.
Can you tell I’m feeling frustrated at the moment?
The things is, I strongly believe that every single child in our country should have access to a decent quality education.
I’m not “anti” Private Schools but the fact is, not every family can afford to send their children to a private school.
And they shouldn’t HAVE to.
I can’t help but feel that the direction things are heading in will only continue to widen the divide between the “haves” and “have nots” in this country.
In a country that supposedly favours “equal distribution of wealth”, something about the state of affairs in our educational system just doesn’t seem right. 
And for the most part, I feel so helpless to do anything about it. *sigh*
Any ideas?
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I completely agree with you. I feel like I’m disadvantaging my children sending them to the local public school, because their funding is so poor compared to the (dozens) of local private schools. So incredibly frustrating!!!
I want to support the public system (probably can’t afford to put 3, now almost 4 children through private schools), but things keep getting cut left-right and centre! Not all things are bad - eg canteen only open for lunch on M/W/F, but now things like the end of year concert being cut….!
Hear hear!
You might want to read this - I wrote it a month or so ago for the Sunday Age - http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/no-need-to-go-the-distance-for-a-good-school-20100918-15h40.html?comments=38#comments
I also agree with you. My children attend a public primary school & I am hoping that they will attend a public high school as well. Apparently in this state the public primary schools do OK, as do the year 11 & 12 colleges. But for the 4 years of high school many people move their kids to the private system - the repercussions of this are hugs. As more people leave the system, more cuts are made to funding and the further behind the public schools fall. The high school I am thinking of sending my children too is right next door to a big private school. The ovals are adjoined and the difference is startling. The private school has many many green manicure ovals, complete with a white picket fence, even in the middle of the drought. The public school’s oval is ridden with weeds, doesn’t get watered in drought and looks awful - and yet the private school received funding under the BER because it starts at year 4.
I don’t have any ideas or suggestions, but I do firmly believe that our government is seriously out of touch with the people who voted for them.
Because they themselves have access to huge wages etc, they seem to think everyone else is okay too.
The system sucks.
I have to be careful I don’t start a HUGE rant about this, because I COULD NOT AGREE MORE. What bothers me the most about our school is the lack of funding in one of THE most important departments - special education.
Our local elementary school (and entire district) is very small. I could understand not having the resources for a separate classroom, but the more I think about it, the more I think that’s only half of it. They more or less assign a “helper” to these 1 or 2 kids, and shove them in the regular class. The main problem with this is most special ed kids just don’t learn like the rest, and can get frustrated very easily. Also, the “helper” is paid minimum wage, and not required to have any training what-so-ever. NONE. My son was finally diagnosed with NLD, a form of autism, by people OUTSIDE the school. I pulled him out of school last winter because of how they were mistreating him. He’s SUCH a smart kid, and was spending more time in time out rooms and behind locked doors than he was learning.
I’m honestly starting to think our government just flat out doesn’t care what happens to some of these kids. “No child left behind” is such a joke, it makes me sick. Plus lack of training required makes me VERY mad.