Comments on: Rage piled upon fury

By: ab

ab — Wed, 10 May 2006 22:44:01 +0000

Sorry btw, my kids went to a public school for a while and the resources were pretty comparable(better in fact) to those in fee paying private schools. But maybe things are different over this side of the continent, the public schools are really pretty competitive over here, offer a great range of subjects too.

By: ab

ab — Wed, 10 May 2006 22:41:33 +0000

I didn’t know you did comedy as well Zoe?!

By: Zoe

Zoe — Tue, 09 May 2006 20:27:17 +0000

Nah, ab, it wasn’t just the wording – although I maintain if you want the warm fuzzies of having “sacrificed” it should actually be a sacrifice – it was that I think there is a more significant problem than how tough parents who educate privately have it, namely how tough kids at poor schools with no bloody choice have it.
I don’t want to relieve the load on the public school system, I want it resourced adequately with happy and well trained staff.

By: ab

ab — Tue, 09 May 2006 19:42:09 +0000

Harry, sadly not ;}}I think under the new budget Costello has promised to repay single parents who do charity work hour for hour on the rack.(might work out well I have a bit of a bad back…)
I know the wording of the Mundine’s idea gave Z the woopsies, but 1 good thing that could come out of the move would be taking some of the load off an over burdened public education system.It could be a real aid to the gov schools.
My kids did attend a catholic school previously however which had such large classes that, even half way through gr 2, they hadn’t noticed my daughter didn’t know her abc :{{

By: wpd

wpd — Tue, 09 May 2006 16:57:07 +0000

Unfortunately, this debate lacks conceptually clarity. The debate should be about children’s rights rather than parents’ rights.
Some children, regardless of cause, have access to vast amounts of resources. Most children, regardless of whether they are in state or private schools (mainly catholic) are deprived of resources in the sense that they receive less than the average.
The ALP polcy was the right one if viewed from a children’s right perspective.
Jenny Macklin may be a good developer of policy, but she is a hopeless communicator.
Last night Keating showed how to communicate politically.

By: harry

harry — Tue, 09 May 2006 16:17:29 +0000

ab,
Surely a govt. reward for you should be based on your voluntary work rather than on where you send your kids, yes?

By: David Heidelberg

David Heidelberg — Tue, 09 May 2006 08:51:23 +0000

I’m certainly not sending my children to a public school – with all those poor brown children running around, my little blonde Aryan girls might catch something.

By: ab

ab — Mon, 08 May 2006 22:05:33 +0000

I send my kids to a private school, I’m a student and do a lot of voluntary work and it is a pretty significant sacrifice for me in my family budget.
But kids’ education provides a chance of having greater opportunity and *possibly* safer/happier school years.
It isn’t always a ‘lifestyle choice,’ for some there is actually NO choice, while not all kids have a disability, there are plenty with learning defeiciencies etc which could be better catered for at particular schools I know we’ve tried all from the spectrum.
I’d love a reward from the gov for my hard work, and in two months they take away austudy for single mums and disabled people, they are also reducing our pay by at least $300 per month. So who’s the reward for – I don’t think it’s for sole parents regardless of how hard they work their tuccasses off.
Basically it’s really not a reward for that, it’s really just more social engineering to create more British type class structures because we’ve strayed too far from colonialism for the right wingers.
With tertiary fees escalating and education standards deteriorating the gov will have a ready made workforce full of factory fodder for the free trade agreements. If you think labor is any different, Beazley is NOT going to remove IR legislation if he gets in he has said it openly, check out Tony’s post on teh Pigs are flying.