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Author Archives: Lyndsay Connors
Alan Tudge as Federal Education Minister: what does he mean for our school system?
Given Tudge’s concerns that the Gonski reforms would require Catholic and independent schools to take “certain cohorts” of students, amounting to “an incredible intrusion” , it seems he will sit comfortably with the pantheon of previous Coalition ministers.
Posted in Education
5 Comments
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 … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Lobbyland
3 Comments
If that’s the worst that ever happens to you…
If we want our young people to grow up resilient it is surely unwise to give any encouragement to the idea that not having a school formal to mark the end of their schooldays is a major tragedy.
Posted in Education, Politics
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Part 2: Society bears costs of education policy ‘crimes’
In most other countries it would be hard for a government to persuade an electorate it was dealing with widespread economic hardship while it was funding private schools with resources beyond the dreams of avarice.
Posted in Education
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Part 1: Education policies over the decades have intensified socio-economic segregation
As prime minister, John Howard, along with his education minister David Kemp, drove the push to privatise schooling in line with their political philosophy.
Taking university funding from bad to worse
“A new rule of politics seems to be that no matter how badly the pollies have stuffed up some area of government responsibility, they can always make it worse.” This was the opening salvo to Ross Gittins’s recent opinion piece … Continue reading
Posted in Education
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. Learning the value of teachers’ work
The shock of dealing with the realities of the coronavirus pandemic has forced our prime minister to realise that schools are fundamental to our democracy and that teachers are on the front line of society and should be valued accordingly.
Posted in Education
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. What the blaze(r)s!!!
If you search for St. Kevin on the internet, you will find that the references to this Irish saint are vastly outnumbered by references to the Australian boys school that bears his name and that has been dragging that name … Continue reading
Posted in Education
5 Comments
LYNDSAY CONNORS. Words, words, words.
It is one thing for politicians to duck politically sensitive or embarrassing questions, but it is quite another when they opt for providing answers that are devoid of meaning.
Posted in Politics
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LYNDSAY CONNORS. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind
“They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind”, according to the Book of Hosea in the Old Testament. Not in the Australian federal system of government, they shan’t. Not when it comes to education policy.
LYNDSAY CONNORS. Slogans like “those who have a go get a go” are no substitute for rational, coherent policy.
The status of Jean Blackburnas one of the finest contributors to Australia’s education policy is confirmed by the recently released biography by Craig Campbell and Debra Hayes covering her life and work. Above all, Jean Blackburn understood the interrelationship between … Continue reading
LYNDSAY CONNORS – CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER. The Marketing of Private Schools
CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER. The Marketing of Private Schools In its recent newspaper advertisement for a Director of Advancement, a long-established Sydney private school for Catholic boys described itself as “an inclusive, non-selective, school, with students attending from all walks of … Continue reading
Posted in Education
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