Rich getting too much with education funding

IT IS is all very well talking about needs-based funding, but Gonski 2.0 is increasingly looking like the cynic’s view of foreign aid (poor people in rich countries giving to rich people in poor countries). With Gonski 2.0 it looks like: poor parents of government-school students in middle and rich suburbs subsidising rich parents of private-school students in in middle and poor suburbs. Continue reading “Rich getting too much with education funding”

The danger of dialogue and appeasing North Korea

EIGHTY years ago, Hitler had just remilitarised the Rhineland and had his eye on taking Austria and the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Nothing happened after those takeovers but talks, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declaring, “Peace in our time.” Naivety and appeasement. Today we have North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. The history is similar. Continue reading “The danger of dialogue and appeasing North Korea”

Budget: season of sectors and selfishness

BUDGET time often shows Australia at its most sectional and selfish, especially if it is a Coalition Budget. This one was certainly no exception. It has been described as a turning away from the meanness of the Abbott Government’s mean approach of the 2014 Budget and turning away from obsession with deficits. But I get the sense that virtually every 2017 Budget measure was done with an eye to voters, but not to voters or society overall, but to particular “sectors” of voters who might change their vote for or against the Government according to how well or badly or unchanged the Budget affected their individual financial position. Continue reading “Budget: season of sectors and selfishness”

Good debt. Bad debt. Good govt. Bad Govt

LET’S start with some definitions.

Good Investment: spending on things like disadvantaged schools where you get more bang for your bucks rather than elite schools because at disadvantaged schools the extra money goes on teaching. Elite schools already spend enough on education so the extra money goes on diving pools and the like, and do not improve educational outcomes. So that is Bad Investment. Continue reading “Good debt. Bad debt. Good govt. Bad Govt”