Page 1751 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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What Mr Doszpot rightly calls for in (2)(a), acknowledging the review, is that it does not go down: do not decrease. In (b) he calls on the commonwealth and ACT governments to ensure that Catholic schools continue to be an accessible choice for parents to educate their children. Part of that accessibility is making sure that there is money available in all three parts of the education spectrum for those kids with special needs.
It is an interesting argument. This furphy is put out that the Catholic system is not pulling its weight in regard to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and that it is not pulling its weight for kids with disabilities. Parents make the choice based on the assistance that they get. If there is a lot more money in the government system, why wouldn’t you put your child there?
Why don’t we reverse that and say, “Let’s make sure that all students with special needs, it doesn’t matter where they are in the system, get the assistance they deserve”? How equitable would that be? Gee, I think that is equity: “It doesn’t matter where you are, we will assist you.” So do not get up and snidely say: “The fight between the three sectors is over and we all support Catholic education. But, gee, they’re not pulling their weight in regard to Aboriginal and TI kids and they’re not pulling their weight in regard to kids with a disability.”
I know that the Catholic Education Office take this issue very seriously because I know of a young student. I have spoken to the special education teacher that the CEO send, for instance, to my son’s school to assist kids there. They go out of their way to do what they can within the resources that they have. Then you get these snide criticisms that they are not doing enough and they are not pulling their weight. If they have not got the resources, they can only do what they can do. So if you are concerned that some of the numbers do not match up, give them some resources to make the numbers match up. That would be a significant shift to equity.
When you look at what Mr Doszpot is trying to say, he is saying, “Let’s make sure it’s accessible, let’s make sure the funding doesn’t go backwards.” But what does Mr Barr say? Mr Barr’s amendment says:
(2) calls on the Government to:
(a) work to ensure that the ACT schools sector continues to operate in a collaborative and co-operative fashion for the benefit of ACT students; and
(b) make representations to the Review of Funding for Schooling seeking to ensure:
(i) a fair share of funding for all ACT schools, including Catholic schools; and
(ii) that any school funding model is centred on student need.”.
I do not think it is the same thing. In fact, I know it is not the same thing. If the government truly believed the rhetoric, they would say: “Yes, Mr Doszpot, it is
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