Educational Envy

What an interesting bunch of reactions to the Government providing $2.6 million worth of scholarships to allow students from low-income families to attend a private school. The Herald headline gives the initial flavour of envy:

$2.6m for posh-school entry under fire as elitist

What exactly is a “posh” school? I am familiar with a number of Christian private schools and the word “posh” does not spring to mind. “Struggling” might be one – as parents in these recessionary times baulk at the high fees and rolls are reduced. “Desperate” might be another – as in parents are desperate for their children to actually have an education as opposed to a “learning experience”. Remember, it is the publicschools that are railing against the introduction of standards and comparisons. These things have been freely available when comparing private schools. They are openly welcomed. What parents are paying for is not “snob value” or elitism, but a genuine education that they can trust. Whilst the public schools provide no comparison data, parents can not trust the quality of education in that institution.

There are many excellent public schools. Some have standards as good or higher than the best private school. Unfortunately, apart from the more obvious shining examples, parents can not tell which schools they can trust because the teacher’s union has always opposed the public release of proper standards. One suspects that it is the teacher’s union who are the true elitists here, seemingly unable to trust to the good judgement of parents.

The envious tone continues in the expected diatribe from the likes of Bomber at Tumeke!

“While this Government handed out $35 million extra to the Private Education sector, they gutted 80% of adult education in the public sector. Poor rich mummy and daddys and the elitist education sector that panders to them need a helping hand from the taxpayer at the detriment of our public education.”

Apparently, he (and the denizens of Red Alert) do not know that the subsidy to private education establishments is considerably less than the cost of educating a child in the public system (currently about $15,000 – the same as the scholarship grant), with generally better results. There is no detrimental effect on public education. In fact, the more children who are educated privately, the more money available for public education. Mentioning adult education classes in the same sentence as children’s education demonstrates that, once again, Bomber has lost the plot.

And speaking of losing the plot, it appears that Idiot/Savant (but mostly Idiot) at NRT never had it in the first place. This has to be the most venemous bit of envy-driven bile I have ever read:

“The sole purpose of private schools is to promote the snobbery of the rich. Instead of funding that, we should be putting that money into improving our public education system so that it delivers for every child. And if the wealthy want to exclude themselves from that so they can think they are better than the rest of us, they can pay for it themselves.”

I suspect that the sole purpose of I/S is to serve as a warning to others. Oh. Wait… Isn’t that Barnsley Bill?

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