The issue is a simple one. Exclusive Brethren schools receive federal government funding that should be directed towards the education of the nation's poorest children.
Funding deals for Exclusive Brethren schools were set up by the Keating government. They continued and were promoted under the Howard government and still operate under the Rudd government.
The Sunday Age (April 6, 2008) reports rich Exclusive Brethren schools are receiving the same generous rate of government funding as the nation's poorest schools, including those in impoverished Aboriginal communities.
The Rudd Government has pledged to continue paying millions of dollars to the religious sect despite the group boasting that its students are "found in the middle to upper levels of the socio-economic group".
Exclusive Brethren schools are being funded as if they are Category 12 schools, which are the poorest schools in the lowest-income communities in the country. In other words, Category 12 schools serve communities which have very low incomes. Does that sound like the communities Exclusive Brethren school students come from?
Government documents obtained by The Sunday Age show Brethren schools in NSW and South Australia receive category 12 funding despite not meeting these criteria.
Federal school funding documents show that the Brethren's multi-campus NSW school, Meadowbank, and the South Australian school, Melrose Park, were funded at the same rate as "special schools", giving them the same per-student funding as Nyangatjatjara College, in the Northern Territory, the Giant Steps school for autistic students and schools for the hearing-impaired.
The Brethren's MET school in Meadowbank does not meet the criteria for category 12 funding: it is in suburban Sydney, has small class sizes, and is financially supported by a community that boasts it has no poverty.
This scandalous matter need to be addressed, and soon!
2 comments:
Kudos Clarrie on the highlighting of an important issue. It is difficult to see how Kevin Rudd cannot react to this type of news.
Rudd entered a very select group of politicians and public figures when he stated publicly last year: "The Exclusive Brethren are an extremist sect and cult."
To continue funding a group known for their wealth and general disinterest in society is indeed 'a scandalous matter'.
Of greater issue perhaps is that these schools are, like their 'Meeting Rooms', not open to the public. The Australian taxpayer is funding the non-education of a whole new generation of Exclusive Brethren.
Peebs.Net Team
http://peebs.net/
Wow I knew the situation was bad, but I didn't know it was so bad that the EB were getting as much Federal gvt funding as remote indigenous schools and schools for disabled kids (who need specialists and extra assistance in order for them to get the quality of education needed to bring them up to level footing with mainstream schoolkids). That's disgusting. What Rudd should be doing is digging up every piece of correspondence between the Howard government and the EB, laying it all in the open and using the corrupt goings-on and inherent unfairness in the current situation as grounds for yanking funding from these nutbag religious fundamentalists.
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