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A neoliberal funding policy has undermined the ability of Catholic schools to meet poor children's needs. Instead, Catholic schools have allowed millions of tax dollars to be siphoned off public schools and given to the private sector.
Ross Fitzgerald claims Catholic schools 'have become the instrument through which tax dollars are siphoned off public schools and given to the private sector'. His argument is a misrepresentation of the facts.
A religious purpose is at the heart of Catholic Social Services. Because of this purpose, organisations need to be able to recruit people who support the social mission of the Church, and whose conduct will not compromise or undermine the witness of the Church.
Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act allows religious and quasi-religious groups and individuals to 'discriminate' lawfully. It's hard to see the relevance of the beliefs or lifestyle of a cleaner or clerk in an independent, para-religious school.
Studies correlate teacher morale with student achievement, so ranking schools according to student performance may be counterproductive if it hurts teacher morale. Finland has the best education system in the world without resorting to league tables.
After a lifetime in schools run by religious orders, I am appalled to think abuse against children in institutions in Ireland was 'endemic'. I try to persuade myself that 'Brendan', the saintliest man I ever knew, cancels out the bad eggs.
Forcing schools to produce information on students' exam performance will never be a reliable strategy for lifting numeracy and literacy. Learning is as much about taking risks and failing as it is about getting the answers right the first time.
Teachers arriving in remote Aboriginal schools represent merely the latest in a long, transient line. What will separate them from their predecessors is their ability to listen and learn from the people whose land they now live on.
Some religious schools have withdrawn from Amnesty because it has become pro-choice on abortion. But members of organisations such as Amnesty, which take a full spectrum approach to human rights, do not generally agree to every item in the organisations' policy statements.
The Christian vote can't be bought, not even with tax-free fees for parents of children at religious schools. The early Christians were adamant that Caesar — the political ruler of the moment — was not Lord.
Val Yule is a writer on social issues and researcher on imagination and literacy. In the 1970s she was schools psychologist for disadvantaged Catholic schools with the Commonwealth Disadvantaged Schools Program.
Many Australians have reservations about a government poster espousing such values with a quote from an English novelist, George Eliot, proclaiming "Character is Destiny". Others wonder about Simpson's Donkey as the emblematic carrier of these values. But how do schools train their students to be moral agents in the 21st century.
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