SUPPORTERS

Hannie Rayson-What Matters

We are at a dinner party and my girlfriend launches into a story about going on a tour of one of Melbourne's most prestigious grammar schools. more details...

Christos Tsiolkas

It occurred one late summer when I was around eight years old. One Sunday afternoon, my father took my younger brother and I for a long walk. We crossed the Studley Park Bridge, crossed the river from Richmond into Kew. more details...

Musician Paul Kelly

My children go to a public primary school. Their classmates come from a range of backgrounds and cultures. I see this experience of diversity as an important part of their education. I'd like to see public schools as well resourced and well funded as private schools.

Roy Punshon

I strongly believe that education should be secular, free and uniformly of the highest possible standard. Such a system can only be provided by the State. The best way to support the state school system is to send your children to State schools and to actively participate in their education. The surest way to ensure that we have a second rate State system is to abandon it. more details...

Jane Caro-10 reasons to send your child to a government school

1. Your child will get four more weeks of education every year. By the end of an average thirteen year education, children in government schools have received an entire year of extra education, for free. Think about it, not only do the non-government schools charge you anything up to $12,000p.a. for the privilege of 4 weeks a year less education, but you then have to shell out even more for camp or school holiday care, to keep the kids occupied while they're on all those extra holidays. more details...

Mem Fox-The public/private school debate continued

I was once so perplexed by the private/public school debate I wrote an article to examine my own views on the matter and to sort out what I felt to be the peculiar views of others. Its title was Private education vs. private schools, or why my heiress went to the local high school. My puzzled irritation was directed mainly at middle class professionals, many of whom were my friends and colleagues, who appeared to lack the confidence and the self-esteem they needed in order to trust the state system to educate their children. more details...

Sian Prior

We love to think of Australia as 'the land of the fair go'. To me, a fair go means trying to ensure that everyone in this country has the same access to resources, to cultural capital, to information and to education. The public school system can't eradicate every odious inequality in our community. more details...

Shane Maloney

Like most parents, I want the best possible education for my kids. For me, that means an education which develops the kind of skills they will need to make their way in the world and the kind of values they will need to make a positive contribution to that world. more details...

Phillip Adams-School ties that bind

While it looked like someone had shoved a stick into a community of termites, the mound was the Sydney Opera House and the over excited insects were children. Countless kids, a jostling, joking jumble of pre-adolescence bussed in from all over the state. A jetsam of genders, races and religions gloriously misbehaving though some looked wide-eyed with terror at what lay ahead. Because, seconds later, this cacophony of kids was expected to file inside and become a mass choir. While others would form a symphony orchestra or a jazz band or a corps de ballet. more details...

Peter Doherty

All the indications are that the strong economies of the future will be built on the capacity to exploit novelty, insight, discovery and innovation. Australia has strong fundamentals in agriculture, mining and tourism. However, it is increasingly obvious that the level of prosperity that Australians expect cannot, in the long term, be supplied solely by the exploitation of natural resources. Developing a knowledge-based economy depends substantially on individual creativity and enterprise. The basic problem for us is how, with a population of only 20 million, are we to compete in this new world. more details...

Chris Bonnor-Education is no place for a free market

A few weeks ago I attended a reunion at my old country town school. There I was with solicitors and shopkeepers, millionaires and mechanics - a wonderful experience. The school enrolled just about every kid in town. more details...

Dennis Altman

The current debate on multiculturalism offers an opportunity to rethink the relationship between social diversity and social cohesion. As cultural and religious differences increase within Australia the experience of other countries, such as Britain and the Netherlands, suggests the possibility of balkanisation, the development of self-perpetuating groups deeply alienated from the larger society. We need responses that are more imaginative than increasing police powers or group hugs for clerics. more details...

Kerry Greenwood-I stayed usefully angry for two years

The day I started at Geelong Road State School, I hung on tightly to my mother's finger thinking Im not going to like this!''. A boy fell over in front of me and grazed his knee on the asphalt. I was so small that I felt I was looking into a world of knees. more details...

Catherine Deveny-HOW I AM GOING TO SAVE A MILLION BUCKS WITHOUT EVEN TRYING

Remember those How Much Is Your House Worth headlines? They were big weren't they? We won't be seeing those for a while. How much do you reckon your house is worth these days? I'll bet you a tank of petrol it's worth less than two chocolate bars for three dollars. People loved those How Much Is Your House Worth lists because they could open the newspaper and feel as if they'd made money by doing stuff all more details...

Steve Biddulph

I visit Germany quite often and it's great to see what more progressive countries are like - how they run things, and how much better they make life for their people. In Germany there are hardly any private schools, (and most of those are for American and British expat kids whose parents just can't break the habit.) more details...