7 Reasons why public schools are not just better for your kids

By Jane Caro

Convenor of Priority Public

In this year's HSC, public schools educated 74 of the 130 students who topped the state in their course. Private schools educated 44 of them and 12 students were privately tutored. Clear evidence that public schools, both selective and comprehensive, more than hold their own academically. .

However, academic success for your own kids is not the only reason to select a public school. .

1. An excellent, well resourced public education system could help reverse our declining fertility rates. Even Federal Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, (quoted recently in this paper) recognised the contraceptive effect of expensive private school fees, especially if a private education is regarded as a necessity. .

2. Most parents who feel they must pay fees of $10- $12,000 per annum, per child to buy them a decent education, have to work long hours to earn such after tax money. A well resourced public education system could help the PM's work/family balance BBQ stopper, by taking some of the pressure off parents to earn such big bucks. .

3. Sending your kids to the local public school can also help rebuild our much lamented sense of connection and community. When my kids attended the local primary school I met a group of local mums for coffee every Friday, after walking our kids to school. Now the kids are off to distant secondary schools (mostly private) and our coffee mornings are a thing of the past. .

4. Send your kids to the local school and they can walk there. They also have time after school to play with their friends who live nearby, to kick a footy around, ride their bikes, build a cubby. Send them further afield and they spend hours commuting on trains and buses, often not getting home till dark. Health experts agree that it is the loss of incremental activity, like regularly walking to school, rather than participation in organised sport, that is a major contributor to our kid's increasing obesity. .

5. "Walk Safely to School Day" was developed partly as a reaction to the discovery that kids were losing their skills as pedestrians. Walking to their local school on a daily basis keeps them not only slimmer and fitter, but much safer as pedestrians. Attending the local school also keeps your kids away from major transport hubs,making them less vulnerable to both bullying and crime. .

6. The Deputy Principal of a school in a low socio economic area put a high price on the gradual residualisation of our public education system. She pointed out that if the State and Federal Government's do not start putting more money into our public schools soon, they will simply have to spend a lot more in the future building gaols. .

7. Finally, if more middle class parents stuck with their local public schools, they wouldn't just benefit their own kids. By bringing their self confidence, economic resources and life skills to the service of that school, they would increase the chances of all the children who attend it.