Writer
Chris Bonnor
Chris Bonnor is co-author, with Tom Greenwell, of Choice and Fairness: A Common Framework for all Australian schools, Koshland Innovation Fund, 2023.
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Damned lies and school statistics… again
The Australian Education Union has compared public funding going to private schools with amounts going to similar government schools. Its revelations are alarming and should be game-changing. One private school peak group has cried foul, but the union is on the money. So what should happen next? Continue reading »
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Better and fairer schools – in a sea of inequity?
The title of the new plan for school education, the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, might come back to haunt us well before it expires in 2034. As an agreement it doesn’t look any better, and it certainly won’t be fairer. It will lock Australia into a schooling framework which is worsening with each passing Continue reading »
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What happened to the politicians’ schools?
This year our federal members of parliament will vote on a new National Schools Reform Agreement (NSRA). Before voting they might consider what happened to the schools they once attended. Their alma maters reveal what went wrong. Continue reading »
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School funding back in the news
It’s our own Groundhog Day experience: when it comes to school funding, we end up doing the same thing over. Jason Clare’s promise to fund all public schools towards their entitlement might bear fruit, but what if nothing else changes? Continue reading »
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Which way for school students with disabilities?
To truly serve all students, we’ll have to rethink how schools ‘do school’. Continue reading »
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Lies, damned lies and school statistics
The recent exchange in Pearls and Irritations between John Frew and Ross Fox about teaching severely disruptive students comes at a time of frenetic interest in school reform, sparked by two current high stakes reviews. Continue reading »
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A problem bigger than rich schools and funding
It’s easy to gain the impression that there are just two school sectors in Australia: elite private schools and public schools, the former being exclusive and over-funded, the latter inclusive and cash-strapped. True to a point, but in dwelling on this dichotomy we are missing bigger policy issues that cry out for resolution. Continue reading »
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Is NSW education in for big changes? Let’s hope so
With the NSW election behind us the media is mulling over what Labor has in store for the premier state. The Sydney Morning Herald recently unpacked the agenda of education minister Prue Car. There is much to cheer about, but will she deal with deep-seated problems? Continue reading »
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The Labor Essayists: Chalmers, Rudd and the failing market of schools
There are echoes of Kevin Rudd’s 2009 essay in Jim Chalmers recent tome. Themes of social justice, equity and fairness still resonate. But this time around, Labor needs to think beyond the lofty ideas to confront what it all means for Australia’s schools. Continue reading »
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School reform: shift the deck chairs, forget about the ship
The school year has started with the usual flurry of excitement about new policies and reforms, but flaws in the structure of Australia’s school system still aren’t on any agenda. Continue reading »
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Schools in crisis; solutions in disarray
The school year looks like ending with observations and commentary that smack of both the disparate and the desperate. In just a few days, we have seen reminders of worsening problems, suggestions that might narrow the focus of schools. Continue reading »
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Productivity Commission review ignores repressive structure of Australian school system
The Productivity Commission’s interim report on school reform has conjured up some good ideas, but it ignores the regressive structure of Australia’s school system and how it acts as an anchor on school improvement. Continue reading »
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Waiting for Gonski: a response to Trevor Cobbold
Trevor Cobbold’s recent review of Waiting for Gonski, how Australia failed its schools, will resonate with many. He is generous in his praise, forthright in his criticisms, and remains focused on his preferred policy options for the future. But his critique side-steps the big problems facing Australia’s schools, and he fails to recognise the key Continue reading »
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Election 2022: no education minister and an opposition without a school funding policy
Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek taunt Scott Morrison, calling on him to identify who is actually education minister – the disgraced Alan Tudge or the disgraceful Stuart Robert – but Labor has questions of its own to answer. Continue reading »
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If I were the Minister for Education, these are the three priority things I would do for schools
If any serious policy issues are aired during this election, it’s unlikely school education will feature. Yet our framework of schools is an evolving disaster. And while there are critical differences between the parties, none of the policy offerings address the root causes of our educational malaise. Continue reading »
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Dud minister blames dud teachers
Federal ministers often reveal their inability to deal with complexities in their portfolios, none moreso than Coalition education ministers. Acting minister Stuart Robert has just demonstrated how things can easily unravel. Continue reading »
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What is the point of taxpayer funding of private schools?
The growth in private schooling has long been accompanied by declining overall levels of student achievement, hence the ‘why’ question is long overdue. Continue reading »
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Will schools now get back to normal? We have to do better than that
It is critical that we don’t just return to normal but take advantage of Covid disruption to address structural flaws in Australia’s education system. Continue reading »
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Tudge on the bludge – new education minister offers nothing new
With few exceptions, federal education ministers have followed a well-worn path of school reform that looks easy, resonates well but rarely delivers, and ignores entrenched problems. Alan Tudge fits neatly into this mould. Continue reading »
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Three school education policies for Labor
It seems just months since the last one, but the next election is already highlighting interest in policy development. What school education policies might a progressive sort of party like the ALP develop? They would have to pass three simple tests: they must address something that urgently needs fixing, they mustn’t scare the punters and Continue reading »
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Upturn in education? A few more lessons need to be learned
Tanya Plibersek’s contribution to Upturn, a better normal after COVID-19, is entitled ‘Lessons Learned: Education in recovery’. For school education in particular, the problems and the lessons learned go back many years. Achieving a better normal is not good enough; the pandemic didn’t so much create new problems as seriously highlight and worsen old ones. Continue reading »
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The failing pursuit of school success in NSW
Yes, it was announced in a Sunday newspaper, but this is serious: The NSW Department of Education will intervene in public schools that fail to meet performance targets in priority areas such as HSC and NAPLAN results, and other measures of success. Continue reading »
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Lobbyland: How the lobbies hijacked school education
In all areas of public policy there are groups that engage in advocacy and lobbying to influence public opinion and to advance their special interests. These groups have been obvious and successful over half a century of increasingly privatised school education. Continue reading »
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Blessed are the rich … Catholic schools
The ABC news report ‘How the Catholic school system takes from the poor to give to the rich’ is a significant and telling revelation of how Catholic school authorities have used public funding to play rich favourites among their schools. This unacceptable practice has been long standing and far reaching. Continue reading »
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Kids are back at school, but some have fallen well behind
The Grattan Institute wants help for disadvantaged students left stranded by the switch to remote learning during the pandemic. Around $1 billion would fund the small-group tutoring needed. Is it going to happen? Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. This virus might lead to education reform.
Education reform is well overdue. As the need to act with speed has seen governments jettison rusted-on assumptions and ideologies in areas such as employment, health and welfare – can school education be next? After all, there are just as many education problems sitting in the too-hard basket, many of them extremely wicked and ignored Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. Two very wicked problems in school funding
Australia certainly isn’t short of policy headaches, but one promises to be of migraine proportions: our school funding regime has reached new heights of absurdity and needs urgent review. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. The pendulum swings (yet again) for NSW schools
One thing we used to tell beginning teachers was to never punish the whole class because a few students were misbehaving. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. SMH Schools Summit flies many kites
If you want a headline or two, put on a big event. That has just worked for the SMH with its current Schools Summit. Continue reading »
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CHRIS BONNOR. School fixes and fantasy
Two weeks ago I commented on the forthcoming Education Council of Ministers meeting and how it was apparently going to tackle our latest reported dive in student achievement. I declared that the chance of an enduring solution emerging from that gathering amounted to fantasy. True to form, the ministers emerged from that meeting with strong Continue reading »
