Australian Society 2017: age-old privilege remains strongly entrenched

“The Turnbull Government is doing what all Coalition governments have done in the past 40 years - deliver special funding deals for private schools, especially for Independent schools in this case, to ensure their resource advantage and privileged position in the schools market place. As Tony Abbott said of the Liberal Party’s long history of supporting Catholic and Independent schools: “it’s in our DNA”.” [Trevor Cobbold, New Figures Confirm More Private Schools Will be Over-Funded Under Gonski 2.0, December 2017]

The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 2017:

Catholic and independent private schools are set to get more than 100 per cent of their needs from governments under the  new "Gonski 2.0" plan, official documents released under Freedom of Information show.

Obtained by the Australian Education Union and processed by the convenor of the Save Our Schools campaign, Trevor Cobbold, the Education Department documents spell out the amount of government funding expected for each school sector in each state in 2018.

In NSW, 110 private schools are expected to receive more than 100 per cent of the so-called schools resourcing standard from governments, up from 65 schools in 2017. By 2027, when the Gonski arrangements are fully implemented, 212 private schools will receive more than their total needs from governments.

In Victoria, 38 private schools will receive more than the resourcing standard from governments, up from 33 in 2017. When Gonski 2.0 is fully implemented, 74 will receive more than all their needs from governments.

The Turnbull government's Gonski 2.0 package will eventually give each private school 80 per cent of the resourcing standard in Commonwealth grants. It will give public schools 20 per cent of the standard…..

The Gonski 2.0 formula will result in a loss of income for some very well-funded private schools, but will increase the number of overfunded private schools. In most states, public schools are funded at less than 80 per cent of the resources standard by the governments that operate them, meaning that although Gonski 2.0 lifts Commonwealth funding to 20 per cent, they will continue to get less than 100 per cent of the standard. NSW public schools would get 91 per cent of the standard, Victorian schools would get 86 per cent.

The private sector would get 107 per cent of the standard in NSW and about 100 per cent in Victoria, according to Mr Cobbold's calculations.

"Gonski 2.0 is the best special deal that private schools have ever had," Mr Cobbold said.

 "The overfunding will cost taxpayers many millions of dollars over the next decade and will divert funds from where they are most needed.

"No funding model that increases the number of overfunded private schools while failing to adequately support public schools can be considered fair. Public schools enrol the bulk of disadvantaged students."….

Unique International College Pty Ltd could face multi-million-dollar fines

Yet another example of the Australian Government’s failed vocational education privatisation policy ……..

http://uniquecollege.com.au/.

On 12 February 2016 Unique International College Pty Ltd had its membership of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training terminated – this was challenged by the company and that matter is still before the Supreme Court,

On 18 April 2017 Unique International College’s VET Provider Approval  was revoked.

At that point students who had been enrolled under VET in the college’s  Diploma of Management,  Advanced Diploma of Management, Diploma of Salon Management and Diploma of Marketing were liable for individual debts of up to $25,000.

By the time this ‘college’ came to the attention of the Australian Consumer Affairs Commission in 2015 its annual income after tax had reached $33.7 million.

During the subsequent court case Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Unique International College [2017] FCA 727 (30 June 2017):

It was alleged that Unique had targeted particular locations for enrolment purposes. These towns and cities were said to be situated in areas where inhabitants were generally people of lower socio-economic means and/or were comprised of a higher percentage of indigenous persons than the average eastern Australian town or city. These locations were said to include: Bankstown, Boggabilla, Bourke, Brewarrina, Emerton, Moree, Taree, Toomelah, Walgett, Wagga Wagga and Granville. At these locations it is then said that Unique conducted marketing operations by, inter alia, calling on consumers at their homes for the purpose of conducting group marketing activities. At these group marketing events, it is alleged that Unique’s staff told the attendees that its courses were free or free until they reached a particular level of income following completion of their chosen course. At the same time, free laptops were allegedly handed out to those who signed up. It is also alleged that the staff were on remuneration arrangements which were based on the number of students whom they were able to convince to enrol.

The Federal Court judgment found that:

The Applicants’ case was that Unique had a ‘system of conduct or pattern of behaviour’ within the meaning of s 21(4)(b) of the ACL. The four features of the Applicants’ case on this which I have accepted are:

(a) the strategy of targeting disadvantaged people by reference to indigeneity, remoteness and social disadvantage (whether deliberate in its original conception or not);
(b) the use of gifts of laptops or iPads to students signing (or loan computers after 31 March 2015);
(c) the use of incentives to staff to encourage them to sign up students; and
(d) the holding of sign-up meetings…..

The effect of the system in (b) to (d) was to supercharge the exploitation of the disadvantaged group which was being targeted (and also Unique’s remarkable profits). The system was unconscionable within the meaning of s 21.

ABC News reported the matter on 30 June 2017:

A private college in Sydney breached consumer law when it signed up thousands of students to loans without them knowing, the Federal Court has ruled.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took action against the Unique International College in Granville.

It alleged the training college, owned by Amarjit Singh, misled up to 3,600 people when it enrolled them in courses, giving them free laptops and telling them the class was free when in fact they were incurring VET FEE-HELP loans of up to $25,000.

The debt would be payable if they earned more than $54,126 per annum……

Judge Nye Perram found the college made false representations and engaged in a pattern of behaviour that amounted to unconscionable conduct in breach of Australian Consumer Law.

Mr Sims said it was a significant victory and the college could face multi-million-dollar fines.

"Our focus is now on ensuring that the affected customers will not remain in debt because of Unique's exploitative behaviour," he said.

Is the National Vocational Education and Training System an abject failure?

In 2011 the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act came into being. It is administered by the Dept. of  Education and Training whose current minister is the Liberal Senator for South Australia, Simon Birmingham.

The system was allegedly designed to deliver workplace-specific skills and knowledge, vocational education and training (VET) covers a wide range of careers and industries, including trade and office work, retail, hospitality and technology. 

It wasn't too long before government-owned Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges/institutes across Australia began to complain they were being starved of funding and courses in order to feed this new education strategy and private ‘colleges’ began to multiply swiftly.

Every so often one of these dodgy private colleges hits the headlines and commentators tut-tut furiously and futilely.

However, most private VET service providers don’t rate much of a mention in mainstream media so the scale of this system failure is not readily apparent, except perhaps to the many thousands of fee-paying students affected.

This is a short and incomplete list of some of the more recent private-sector failures to provide quality further education and vocational training:

ASA (Australian Sports Academy) Pty Ltd, terminated for providing incorrect information in the application.
Australian Vocational Training Academy Pty Ltd, terminated for: failure to provide compliant Training and Assessment Strategies, non-compliance with record keeping requirements; and failure to provide records and evidence to the Department upon request.
Careers Australia Education Institute Pty Ltd, terminated for: failure to properly train and assess students in accordance with training package requirements, non-compliance with record keeping and failure to provide records and evidence upon request.
Careers Australia Institute of Training Pty Ltd, terminated for: failure to properly train and assess students in accordance with training package requirements, non-compliance with record keeping and failure to provide records and evidence upon request. Careers Australia group now in voluntary administration
Industry Education and Training Services Pty Ltd, terminated for: providing incorrect information in the application.
Seluna Pty Ltd, terminated for: failure to comply with training and assessment requirements of the VET Quality Framework, and submitting training activity and receiving subsidies for learners where there was no evidence of commencement.
Western Institute of Technology Pty Ltd, terminated for: providing incorrect information in the application.
Wise Education Group Pty Ltd, terminated for: failure to meet Standards for RTOs 2015 and non-compliance with record keeping requirements.

Group314 Pty Ltd, terminated for: Termination of S and S due to previous termination of APL; and,

Donna Mere Morrell-Pullin, terminated for: providing incorrect information in the application. [my red annotation]

[http://coastcommunitynews.com.au/2017/02/terminated-vocational-education-providers-named-and-shamed/]

Conwal and Associates Pty Ltd, non-compliant with the requirements of the VET Quality Framework, registration cancelled

Online Courses Australia Pty Ltd, non-compliant with the requirements of the VET Quality Framework. registration cancelled

Australian Vocational Learning Institute, non-compliant with the requirements of the VET Quality Framework. registration cancelled

 Clover Educations trading as Cool Body Institute of Massage, not operated consistently with the applicable requirements of the VET Quality Framework, registration cancelled

AITE Pty Ltd Australian Institute of Technical Education, not operated consistently with the applicable requirements of the VET Quality Framework, registration cancelled

Get Qualified Australia-Adelaide Pty Ltd trading as Get Qualified Australia Trades Academy and Get Qualified Trades Academy, not operated consistently with the applicable requirements of the VET Quality Framework, registration cancelled

Get Qualified Australia-Canberra Pty Ltd trading as Get Qualified Australia College, not operated consistently with the applicable requirements of the VET Quality Framework, registration cancelled

Get Qualified Australia-Brisbane Pty Ltd trading as Get Qualified Australia Institute, not operated consistently with the applicable requirements of the VET Quality Framework, registration cancelled

CTM Training Solutions Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Green Pty Ltd trading as Green Training, VET services registration cancelled

Switch On Learning Pty Ltd trading as Australian Institute of Technology & Trade, VET services registration cancelled

Australian Tertiary Academy Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Equalis Pty Ltd trading as Equalis, VET services registration cancelled

Amana International Training Academy Pty Ltd trading as Zenith Education & Training, VET services registration cancelled

ASCET Institute of Technology, critically and systematically non-compliant with the requirements of the vocational education and training (VET) quality framework, registration cancelled

5 Star Training Institute Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

AJK Image Pty Ltd as trustee for The Nicole Kratzmann Family Trust trading as AKISS (Advanced Knowledge in Skin Science), VET services registration cancelled

Australia-Wide Business Training Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Childs Training Pty Ltd as the trustee for the Childs Family Trust trading as Quality Unlimited, VET services registration cancelled

Clear Fountain Pty Ltd trading as NITE School and Nationwide Instructors, Trainers and Educators, VET services registration cancelled

DJ Howle Pty Ltd trading as Onsite Training Services, VET services registration cancelled

Entertrain Institute of Technology Pty Ltd trading as Entertain Interactive Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Excellent Training Institute Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

June Dally-Watkins Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Master Group (Aust.) Pty Ltd trading as Master Group, VET services registration cancelled

Optimal Progression Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Todd Rutherford trading as Drilling Skills Australia, VET services registration cancelled

Aus-Com Training Services Pty Ltd trading as Aus-Com Training Services, VET services registration cancelled

Ausietech Investments Pty Ltd trading as Australian College of Management & Technology)

Professional Training College Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Nailtech Training Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

Project Management Partners Pty Ltd, VET services registration cancelled

[See latest regulatory decisions of Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA)] 

Gurkhas Institute of Technology Pty Ltd, registration cancelled

DIY Training Services Pty Ltd, registration cancelled

Get Qualified Australia-Adelaide Pty Ltd trading as Get Qualified Australia Trades Academy and Get Qualified Trades Academy, registration cancelled

Sage Academy Training Pty Ltd, registration cancelled

Premier Training Institute Pty Ltd, registration cancelled

Safety and First Aid Education Pty Ltd, registration cancelled

Full list of Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) decisions.

And Australia wonders why it has a skills shortage?

Privately run vocational training 'colleges' - what could possibly go wrong?

In the original version of this blog post North Coast Voices had published an excerpt from one of The Age's online articles of 13 March 2017. The excerpt and associated comment has been removed.

AMENDED & UPDATED POST 

In November 2015 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Commonwealth of Australia commenced proceedings against Phoenix Institute of Australia Pty Ltd and Community Training Initiatives Pty Ltd, associated entities of Australian Careers Network Limited, seeking declarations, pecuniary penalties, refunds and other orders in respect of alleged contraventions of the Australian Consumer Law (Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).

This court case appears to be ongoing.

On 13 March 2017 The Age reported on a defamation action, Charan v Nationwide News [2017] VSC 66 (21 February 2017)

Since then Fairfax Media has been forced to issue a public apology:

Apology to Atkinson Charan

Since 13 March 2017, Fairfax Media has published an article on its website regarding the defamation proceedings that Atkinson Prakash Charan has taken against the publisher of The Australian newspaper seeking damages for defamation.

Fairfax Media acknowledges that Mr Charan ceased to be a director of Australian Careers Network Limited on 30 September 2014 and was not involved in the management of the company since that date.  To the degree that the subject article was not a fair and accurate report of court proceedings, Fairfax Media apologises to Mr Charan.  A donation has been made to the Charan Foundation.

The Australian had previously apologised on 20 November 2015:

An earlier version of this article inadvertently named Atkinson ­Prakash Charan as part of ACN’s current management. Mr Charan, in fact, left ACN late last year and has no ongoing role in the company. The Australian apologises to Mr Charan for the error.

The defamation case against Nationwide News does not appear to have a final judgment published yet.

Australian Education Minister out to bully the states under the guise of fixing Gonski education funding model?

On 23 September 2016 ABC News reported:

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham says he is not expecting to broker a final deal on the highly-charged school funding debate as he meets state and territory counterparts in Adelaide today.

Senator Birmingham yesterday attacked the Gonski funding model, which expires at the end of the next school year, saying it had been "corrupted" by a patchwork of individual deals with state governments.

"The Turnbull Government is determined to right this corruption," Senator Birmingham told the ABC's AM yesterday, vowing to "replace the special deals that Bill Shorten cobbled together ... with a new, simpler distribution model where special deals don't distort a fair distribution of federal funds".

Changes to the funding model involve altering federal legislation, and it is anticipated that the Commonwealth can make the changes without the agreement of the states.

When asked if he would push ahead with changes without state support, Senator Birmingham responded that he was "not looking for a result today".

"I'm looking for informed feedback and information from the states and territories," he said.

Another education ministers' meeting is scheduled for this year ahead of COAG discussions early next year. The funding changes are not expected to the finalised until after those consultations.

Senator Birmingham said he is expecting "robust discussion" from the education ministers, some of whom have said they were blindsided by the Senator's remarks.

South Australian Education Minister Susan Close said the first she knew of analysis of the Gonski model given to the media was when she heard Senator Birmingham on the ABC.

"It's extremely discourteous," she told AM this morning.

"We've had no paper presented to us and all we are left with is trying to glean what the proposition is by listening to programs such as yours.

"It seems what he's saying is just a recasting of 'we're not going to give you the money we know you need'."

The analysis highlighted disparity in per-student funding between the states thanks to a "patchwork" of 27 deals signed under the Gonski model.

But Ms Close told AM the Gonski model never envisaged full parity between states until its sixth year in 2020.

"The view that's being put forward through this study that somehow the disparity that occurs in the transition period is a reason to stop doing it at all is a view that will be firmly rebutted by all ministers," she said.

While waiting on the outcome of this “robust discussion” it is well to remember that, given the obvious pro-private schools bias displayed by Coalition federal governments, it is highly unlikely that the Turnbull Government intends to remedy this…….

Graph taken from http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/government-funding-for-private-schools-to-outstrip-average-public-schools-by-2020-20150714-gicdjt.html

Synopsis in Bonner & Shepherd’s Private school, public cost: How school funding is closing the wrong gaps 2015 report:

Recent trends in school recurrent funding strongly suggest that over forty per cent of students in Catholic schools next year will average as much, if not more, public funding than their peers in similar government schools. Two years further on an additional forty per cent will most likely join them. Half the students in Independent schools are on track to get as much, if not more, than government school students by the end of the decade.

This finding emerges as one of the most significant to date from our analysis of My School data. We have previously shown that changes in school funding in recent years – increasingly favouring students who are already advantaged - has done little for student achievement and nothing for equity. Earlier this year we pointed to a $3 billion overinvestment in better-off students, without any measurable gain in their achievement. Now we find that state and federal governments, within four years, will be funding the vast majority of private school students at levels higher than students in similar government schools. Concerns about funding equity should now be joined by concerns about effectiveness and efficiency in how we provide and fund schools.

The apparent runaway public funding of private schools is a legacy of discredited sector-based funding which the half-hearted implementation of the Gonski recommendations hasn’t really touched - and which current school funding schemes and dreams will almost certainly worsen. While Gonski pointed to the need to close the gaps in student achievement, the only gap being closed is that between government funding of its own schools and its funding of the schools that are considered to be "private". Private schools are about to operate at a far more substantial, and previously unimaginable, public cost.

In this report we illustrate how funding has changed and how familiar claims about the relative cost of schools have become obsolete and misleading. We address questions which arise about our schools: what is public, what is private, what should be the difference between them, what obligations do and should fully-funded schools have to the public which pays to run them? Such questions have to be answered if schooling is to provide access and equity combined with effectiveness and efficiency.

The Guardian on 23 September 2016 reported that Senator Birmingham’s NSW counterpart, Adrian Piccoli, is well aware of what his own party at federal level is intending:

The New South Wales education minister, Adrian Piccoli, has warned he will publish full results of commonwealth funding cuts in new school agreements which he says would increase funding to some of the most expensive private schools while cutting funds to public schools.

“We will be making it very clear which schools will win out of any new funding model and which schools are going to lose,” Piccoli told the ABC.

“And what they are proposing is public schools are going to lose money in NSW but continuing to index some of the most expensive private schools in Sydney and across Australia by 3%. That means expensive private schools go up a minimum of 3%.”

Australian Federal Election 2016: something is seriously wrong when private school students get more in government support than the government's own students

The Australian Constitution grants the Commonwealth no specific powers in relation to education. Nevertheless under Section 96 of the Constitution it has partially funded government and non-government schools since the Menzies era, with recurrent funding for private school students beginning in 1970 under Liberal Prime Minister John Gorton.

Some of these private schools belong to organizations holding considerable wealth. The Sydney Catholic archdiocese alone controls funds worth more than $1.2 billion and has regularly made multi-million dollar tax-free profits and nationally the Australian Catholic Church is thought to be worth an est. $100 billion.

On 18 May 2016 The Age reported on the growth in that federal government funding for non-government schools:

Something is seriously wrong when private school students get more in government support than the government's own students. Just as it is when private superannuants get more in government support than the government's own pensioners.

Yet it's happening, and neither side of politics wants to talk about it.

You can check out examples in your own suburb by scouring the MySchool website.

In Balwyn, the government-run Balwyn Primary gets $7214 of government funds per student, while down the road the privately run St Bede's Parish Primary gets $7974, plus what it charges parents.

In Preston, Newlands Primary gets $10,362 but Sacred Heart gets $11,488. In Spotswood, Spotswood Primary gets $8008 while St Margaret Mary's gets $11397. In Ballarat, Ballarat North Primary gets $8158 while St Patrick's gets $8499.

That's by no means a complete list, and the schools I have mentioned are roughly matched for size and socio-economic status.

Right now, on average, Catholic and independent private schools get less per student than government schools, but if present trends continue they'll overtake government schools in four years. An analysis by a former president of the NSW Secondary Principals Council, Chris Bonnor, and education researcher Bernie Shepherd entitled Private School, Public Cost finds that by 2020 the typical Catholic student will receive $850 more than the typical government student, and the typical independent student $100 more.

In the Lower Clarence Valley (Page electorate) on the NSW North Coast similar examples can be found.

St. James Primary School, Yamba NSW – total enrolments 102 pupils

Net recurrent income 2014			$ Total					$ Per student
		Australian Government recurrent funding		969,340					10,536
		State/territory government recurrent funding		207,246					2,253
		Fees, charges and parent contributions		98,101					1,066
		Other private sources		55,836					607
		Total gross income (excluding income from government capital grants)			1,330,523			14,462

Yamba Public School, Yamba NSW- total enrolment 386 pupils

Net recurrent income 2014			$ Total					$ Per student
		Australian Government recurrent funding		607,352					1,586
		State/territory government recurrent funding		3,030,464					7,912
		Fees, charges and parent contributions		86,124					225
		Other private sources		7,982					21
		Total gross income (excluding income from government capital grants)			3,731,922				9,744

St Joseph's PrimarySchool, Maclean, NSW - total enrolments 103 pupils

Net recurrent income 2014				$ Total					$ Per  student
			Australian Government recurrent funding		1,346,008				9,970
			State/territory government recurrent funding		540,393				4,003
			Fees, charges and parent contributions		150,565				1,115
			Other private sources		56,717				420
			2,093,683							15,509

MacleanPublic School, Maclean, NSW - total enrolments 183 pupils

Net recurrent income 2014			$ Total							$ Per student
		Australian Government recurrent funding		366,999				1,932
		State/territory government recurrent funding		1,738,097				9,148
		Fees, charges and parent contributions		61,132				322
		Other private sources		42,194				222
		Total gross income (excluding income from government capital grants)			2,208,421				11,623

Australian Federal Election 2016: the face of private education

A report card on private education in Australia......

The New Daily, 25 March 2015:

More than 40 per cent of Australian secondary children now attend private schools – either so-called independent or religious schools. Australia has one of the most privatised school systems in the OECD….

New figures from the Productivity Commission show that government funding increases between 2008-09 and 2012-13 massively favoured private schools over public schools.

Funding for private schools in Victoria, for example, increased by 18.5 per cent per student, or eight times that of public schools.

Across Australia, the dollar increase for private schools was nearly five times that for public schools. The average increase for private schools was A$1,181 per student compared to only A$247 for public schools.

Other research indicates clearly that the equity gap between our school systems has continued to grow since the Gonski review in 2011.

Each private school pupil now receives, on average, a non-means-tested public subsidy of over A$8000 per year at the expense of the less privileged public school student. So much for the end of the age of entitlement.

In addition, pupils with disabilities in public schools receive A$12,000 of extra support while those in private schools get over A$30,000.

The Conversation, 24 April 2015:

PISA results from 2012 show that independent schools do better than Catholic schools, which in turn do better than government schools. However, when school-level socioeconomic background is taken into account, the differences in performance across school sectors are not significant.

A recent study by researchers at UQ, Curtin and USQ has allowed the simmering educational debate to come to the boil again. Drawing on data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, it finds that sending children to Catholic or other independent primary schools has no significant effect on cognitive or non-cognitive outcomes.

What is interesting is that researchers aligned this study with evidence from the US and UK and were able to draw the same conclusions. That is, for students attending non-government schools the returns are no different to public schools.

The Australian, 6 July 2015:

Taxpayer funding for private schools has grown twice as fast as for government schools, official data reveals.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Author­ity statistics show that federal, state and territory government funding for independent and Catholic schools grew by 23 per cent, on a per-student basis, betwee­n 2009 and 2013.

Taxpayer funding to government schools grew by just 12.5 per cent over the same period.

Taxpayers contributed $11,864 for each student in government schools, $9547 for those in Catholic schools and $7790 for other private school students in 2013.

Private school fees and donations boosted the total net recurrent income per student to $12,548 per government school student, $12,177 per Catholic student and $16,601 per private student, on ­average, in 2013.

The Conversation, 9 July 2015:

The Advertiser,11 November 2015:

ELITE Adelaide private school Prince Alfred College has been found liable for the sexual abuse of one of its students by a boarding master in the 1960s.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 January 2016:

A Sydney private school has been accused of underpaying its employees by the Independent Education Union. 

Reddam House, headquartered in Sydney's eastern suburbs, faced the Fair Work Commission in December over allegations that it had not paid some of its early learning staff overtime, penalties or provided them with pay slips.

The allegations relate to a "state of the art early learning centre" that the 800-student school established on the north shore, last year.  

The Reddam ELS centre for children aged between one and six years features "interactive piazza spaces, critical thinking studios and breakout areas", the Reddam House website says. 

Despite Reddam's promotion of the early learning centre based in St Leonards as "one of the highlights of 2015", the school said the early learning staff were never employed by Reddam itself, a K-12 institution that earned $18 million in student fees last year. 

Reddam's barrister, Christopher Parkin, told the commission that the staff were employed by Crawford Education Pty Ltd and were therefore not subject to the award agreements negotiated between Reddam House and the IEU.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 2016:

Thousands of students of at least four colleges have been left in limbo with huge debts following the collapse of one of the country's largest vocational education companies.

At least 500 administration and teaching staff have also been affected by the collapse.

Aspire College of Education, The Design Works College of Design, RTO Services Group and the Australian Indigenous College were placed in voluntary administration on Tuesday. Aspire alone has about 20 campuses around Australia. 

All of the colleges are owned by Global Intellectual Holdings, which is also in administration with debt owing to ANZ Bank.

The fallout follows a federal government crackdown on the scandal-plagued vocational education sector, which included bans on inducements like free laptops and freezing funds to private colleges accessing VET FEE-HELP to 2015 levels.

There has been widespread rorting of VET FEE-HELP, a HECS-style loans system for vocational training students…..

Global Intellectual Holdings made $83 million in revenue in the year to June 2015, making it one of the largest vocational education companies in Australia.

The group's collapse comes despite Global Intellectual Holdings making a profit of $17.95 million in 2015. During the year it paid $14 million in dividends to its directors Roger Williams and Aloi Burgess. The accounts show the company held $19 million in debt.

News.com.au, 31 March 2016:

The Prime Minister said there was “a very powerful case” for giving state governments total responsibility for payments to state schools from income tax revenue, while the Commonwealth funded private education, such as Catholic schools….

Mr Turnbull’s proposal was among suggestions made in the Reforming the Federation white paper delivered to the Federal Government last year.

It’s options included give states and territories complete funding responsibility for education; and limiting federal spending to independent schools while states and territories fully fund public schools.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 April 2016:

On Monday, the Malek Fahd Islamic school in Greenacre lost an appeal to have $19 million in federal government funding reinstated. 

The decision came after a Federal Department of Education investigation found the private school was operating for profit following allegations of six-figure loans to board members while basic services went unfunded…..

The decision from the Federal Department of Education means funding will dry up by Friday, the last day of term. Despite being a private institution, the school and five others operated by AFIC rely on public funding for 75 per cent of their income. 

ABC News, 5 April 2016:

Some of Australia's most prestigious private schools are being sued for millions of dollars by men who allege they were sexually abused by teachers and staff.

Sydney lawyer Ross Koffel is bringing multiple claims for damages in the NSW Supreme Court against schools including The Scots College, Knox Grammar, Waverley College and De La Salle, Revesby Heights.

Mr Koffel told the ABC he had been approached by a large number of men who allege they were abused at private schools around the country.

"It just seemed to me to be the same problem in school after school after school and it surprised us how many schools, how many students are affected," Mr Koffel said.

"It is a systemic problem in the institutions, in the schools. We're alleging sexual abuse of the students during school hours in most cases and on the school premises, and it just really couldn't be worse."

Ten separate claims against The Scots College, Knox Grammar, Waverley College and De La Salle College, Revesby Heights have been lodged and another two claims will be lodged in coming months.

Mr Koffel said he is investigating another eight claims against other schools.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 2016:

Twenty of Sydney's wealthiest private schools received $111 million in taxpayer funding last year, new data has revealed, allowing the institutions to subsidise plans for tennis courts, flyover theatre towers, and Olympic pools with underwater cameras. 

The schools, including The King's School, Trinity Grammar and SCECGS Redlands, have offset parents investments through the public purse courtesy of an $11 million increase in combined state and federal funding since 2012, according to MySchool data. 

On Friday, Fairfax Media revealed that the oldest girls school in Australia, St Catherine's in Waverley, had won a battle to build a $63 million auditorium complete with an orchestra pit, a water polo pool, and a flyover tower for state-of-the-art theatre productions…..

It is illegal for private schools to invest recurrent funding in building works, but the public injections allow schools to produce savings in their recurrent staff budgets, and direct school fees and donations towards capital projects, where they can also receive separate dedicated capital funding from the government. 

The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 2016:

More than 20 federal police officers raided Australian Careers Network last week after 16,000 students were left in limbo and hundreds of jobs were lost at the company. The action came after the ACCC launched action in the Federal Court in November against one of ACN's colleges to recover $106 million in taxpayer funding,

The ACCC has alleged the college acted unconscionably in enrolling students with intellectual disabilities and preying on people in Aboriginal communities while enrolling them in up to $18,000 in public debt. It also allegedly signed them up to online courses despite not having access to the internet.

The allegations could help to explain why Boston Consulting found ACN to be 224 per cent more efficient than TAFE in its use of physical assets.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 April 2016:

The multi-millionaire chief executive of an embattled private training empire has been accused of running a bizarre harassment campaign against a senior police officer during his former career as a cop on the Bass Coast. Ivan Brown co-founded the Australian Careers Network..... Before Mr Brown was propelled onto the BRW Young Rich List in 2014 with a stake in an estimated $177 million fortune, he worked as policeman in Wonthaggi. But the extraordinary circumstances of his departure from the force have never been made public. Fairfax Media can reveal Mr Brown was the subject of an internal investigation by the former Ethical Standards Department over claims he launched a vindictive bullying campaign against Senior Sergeant Steve Gibson in 2009…..