Reading the sole slightly sensible Victorian newspaper, you could be forgiven for thinking that sending your child to a state school is a terrible idea. Most of the stories about government schools are about schools in disrepair and/or unable to attract teachers. And there is no doubt about it, these things happen in multiple schools.
Of course, government or state school is term that is not unambigious. All schools – governemtn and private – get roughly the same funding, give or take a few thousand dollars. In fact, on balance, the exclusive private schools get more funding from government generally than the average state school. And then they top this up with fees that generally range between $5,000 and $30,000 a year.
All the same, there is the implicit assumption that sending your child to a government school is close to neglect. People carry this picture in their head, perhaps built up from American movies and their own lack of experience, of threadbare classroom when choas is the order of the day. I am constantly amazed by the certainty that people feel about the conditions in government school when they themselves didn’t go to one and haven’t every been into one.
If you walked into the school I am proud to teach at, you would see classrooms with clean tables and chairs. You would see airconditioning, heating and a big TV near the giant whiteboard. You would see the overwhelming number of students in uniform and doing the right thing. And you could talk to the half a dozen staff who are there only for student wellbeing a support. You’d see music rooms with dozens of instruments, and computer rooms with good computers. You see and hear teachers interacting with their students in a professional, warm and lively manner.
And this is a good that it just above the state average on most measures. It’s not an outlier. Are there government schools that are poorly run? Sure. Are there private schools that are poorly run, also sure. We used to send our own kids to one. I also went to one myself in primarry school.
All schools are imperfect, but I get the average government school is a good deal less imperfect that lots of middle-class people think it is. And many, many kids thrive in them. You might be surprised by how good they are.