THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE The Accountability of Private Schools to Public Values Deb Wilkinson Richard Denniss Andrew Macintosh Discussion Paper Number 71 August 2004 ISSN 1322-5421 ii © The Australia Institute This work is copyright. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for study or training purposes only with the written permission of the Australia Institute. Such use must not be for the purposes of sale or commercial exploitation. Subject to the Copyright Act 1968, reproduction, storage in a retrieval system or transmission in any form by any means of any part of the work other than for the purposes above is not permitted without written permission. Requests and inquiries should be directed to The Australia Institute. The Australia Institute iii Table of Contents List of figures and tables iv Acknowledgements vi Summary vii 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation for the study 1 1.2 The role of schools in Australia 1 1.3 Private schools in Australia 2 1.4 Why some parents are sending their children to private schools 8 1.5 Government funding of private schools 12 2. Private and public school values 17 2.1 National Goals for Schooling 17 2.2 The traditional values of public education 18 2.3 The values of private schools 21 3 The effectiveness of private schools in achieving inclusiveness 25 3.1 Accessibility of public and private schools 25 3.2 Student attitudes on the rhetoric and the reality 26 3.3 Values versus practice: Legal discrimination in Australian private schools 27 3.4 Public attitudes to discrimination by private schools 36 3.5 Students with disabilities 41 4. The effectiveness of private schools in achieving cultural diversity 46 4.1 Introduction 46 4.2 Religious diversity in schools 47 4.3 Public attitudes to religious and ethnic mixing at school 48 4.4 Students from different socioeconomic backgrounds 49 4.5 Conclusions 53 5. The role of private schools in promoting equality of opportunity 54 5.1 Introduction 54 5.2 Problems with the current private school funding model 54 5.3 Parental contributions 58 5.4 Exclusivity and snobbery 60 5.5 Conclusions 61 6 Accountability issues in the financing of private schools 62 6.1 Tax expenditures on private schools 62 6.2 Is there a need for a public benefit test? 65 6.3 Tax minimization through private school fee structuring 66 6.4 Implications 71 7. Are more private schools good for Australia? 73 7.1 The debate about private schools 73 7.2 Conclusions 76 References 78 Private schools iv List of figures and tables Figure 1 Growth in the number of full-time students attending 5 government and private schools Figure 2 Growth in the number of Government, Catholic and 6 Independent private schools Figure 3 Proportion of Commonwealth Specific Payments allocated to 13 public and private schools, 1995-96 to 2006-07 Figure 4 Students with a disability as a proportion of all full-time 42 equivalent students, by school sector, 1991-2002 Figure 5 Proportion of families with children enrolled in independent 50 schools by family income, 2001 Figure 6 Percentage of after-tax income required to pay $15,000 per year 53 for school fees Figure 7 Average increase in Commonwealth Government funding for 56 private schools after the introduction of the SES funding model Table 1 Number and growth of religious schools, by religion, 1993- 7 2002 Table 2 Commonwealth specific purpose payments for schools, 1995- 14 96 to 2006-07 Table 3 Commonwealth recurrent funding for the 2005 to 2008 14 quadrennium Table 4 Overview of state government payments to non-government 16 schools (per student) Table 5 Exemptions from NSW and Victorian anti-discrimination 32 laws specific to private schools Table 6 Responses to ‘Private schools should be able to expel students 37 because they are gay’, by high school education and whether send children to private school (%) Table 7 Responses to ‘Private schools should be able to expel students 37 because they are gay’, by area (%) Table 8 Responses to ‘Private schools should be able to expel students 37 because they are gay’, by age and whether have children (%) Table 9 Responses to ‘Private schools should be able to expel girls if 38 they are pregnant’, by high school education and whether send children to private school (%) Table 10 Responses to ‘Private schools should be able to expel girls if 38 they are pregnant’, by area and income (%) Table 11 Responses to ‘Private schools should be able to expel girls if 39 they are pregnant’, by age and whether have children (%) The Australia Institute v Table 12 Attitudes of private school authorities to the funding of 43 students with disabilities in that sector Table 13 Percentage of Australian students of selected religions who 48 attend different types of schools (per cent) Table 14 Responses to the statement that it is good for children of 49 different ethnic and religious backgrounds to mix at school Table 15 Percentage of students in primary and secondary schools with 50 low, medium or high family incomes, 2001 Table 16a Funding of schools – 2003 comparison (as provided by the 57 Government) Table 16b Funding of schools – 2003 comparison with information on 58 additional sources of funding Table 17 Percentage of respondents who agreed with the statement 61 ‘expensive private schools promote snobbery in society’ Table 18 Estimated value of the tax expenditures associated with 64 payments to tax-deductible ‘building funds’ at selected elite schools Table 19 Indicative donations to St Aloysius’ College Foundation 68 Building Fund Table 20 Percentage of respondents who believe that ‘policies to 74 increase the number of children going to private school would be good for Australia’ by whether they have children in private schools Table 21 Percentage of respondents who believe that ‘policies to 75 increase the number of children going to private school would be good for Australia’ by age group Table 22 Percentage of respondents who believe that ‘policies to 75 increase the number of children going to private school would be good for Australia’ by exposure to private schools Private schools vi Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Marilyn Harrington of the Australian Parliamentary Library and to Roy Martin from the Australian Education Union for refereeing this paper. Any remaining mistakes and misinterpretations are the responsibility of the authors. The authors would also like to thank Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli of Deakin University for her assistance and comments. The financial support of the Melbourne Community Foundation – Morawetz Social Justice Fund is gratefully acknowledged. The Australia Institute vii Summary Public values Enrolments at private schools have been growing rapidly in Australia and now account for 32 per cent of the total. The Federal Government has suggested that this is, at least in part, the result of the lack of ‘values’ being taught in public schools. But at the same time the affordability of private schooling has improved due to large increases in Commonwealth funding. Despite the shift to private schooling, there remains widespread agreement in the Australian community about the values that school education should promote. These values include equality of opportunity, the right of all children to a high-quality education, rejection of discrimination and respect for ethnic and religious differences. Everyone seems to agree that, so far as they can, both private and public schools should contribute to the graduation of young adults who are tolerant, egalitarian and respectful of others. It has always been accepted that organisations must be accountable for the public funds they receive. The large increase in government funding for private schools prompts the question of whether those schools are sufficiently accountable. Are they committed to the public values that all schools are expected to uphold? While the private school sector, in all of its diversity, promotes some of these public values some of the time, some private schools fail to uphold them. Yet these schools remain answerable primarily to their own boards rather than to the Australian public. To the extent that some sectors of the private school system actively seek to be exclusive, either because of the fees they charge or on religious grounds, the private school system cannot achieve the degree of inclusiveness inherent in the public school system. This paper considers some of the failings of private schools to protect public values and argues that the receipt of government funding should be contingent on upholding them. This focus should not detract from the many laudable qualities of the sector as a whole, nor does it suggest that there are not some failings of the public school system. Its purpose is to attempt to balance what has been a very one-sided debate and to call for the application of the normal principles of accountability for the billions of dollars of Commonwealth and state funding spent on private schools each year. Inclusiveness All children have the right to a high-quality school education. Yet private schools are exempted from anti-discrimination laws and may expel or refuse to enrol gay students or students who become pregnant. While advocates of religious and private schools sometimes declare that they do not make use of these exemptions, some oppose their abolition. The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Pell, has defended the ‘right’ of religious schools to discriminate against gay and pregnant teenagers on the basis that such discrimination is essential to religious freedom in Australia. Private schools viii This view is contrary to the belief of a large majority of Australians that school values should begin with respect for tolerance of difference. A Newspoll survey conducted for this study finds that discrimination against children on the basis of their sexuality is strongly rejected by Australians.