Chris Bonnor
Chris Bonnor is a former teacher and secondary school principal, a previous head of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council, co-author with Jane Caro of The Stupid Country and What Makes a Good School, and co-author of Waiting for Gonski. He has jointly authored papers on Australia’s schools in association with the Centre for Policy Development and the Gonski Institute for Education.
Chris's recent articles
10 March 2025
Sorry, the full Gonski won’t be enough
The media chorus says it all: the school funding wars are over, public schools will finally get justice, all the major combatants are onside and there will be peace throughout the land. And when all schools implement a suite of mandatory reforms, our levels of student achievement will make us the envy of the world.
2 March 2025
Inclusive solutions for exclusive schools
The 2025 school year is under way, and every young Australian is sharing the experience of renewing friendships and the routines of school and learning.
18 September 2024
Damned lies and school statistics... again
The Australian Education Union (AEU) 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?
8 August 2024
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 year - and long ago stopped being fair.
14 May 2024
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.
5 February 2024
School funding back in the news
Its our own Groundhog Day experience: when it comes to school funding, we end up doing the same thing over. Jason Clares promise to fund all public schools towards their entitlement might bear fruit, but what if nothing else changes?
6 October 2023
Which way for school students with disabilities?
To truly serve all students, well have to rethink how schools do school.
17 July 2023
Lies, damned lies and school statistics
The recent exchange inPearls 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.
19 June 2023
A problem bigger than rich schools and funding
Its 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.
10 May 2023
Is NSW education in for big changes? Lets 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?
9 March 2023
The Labor Essayists: Chalmers, Rudd and the failing market of schools
There are echoes of Kevin Rudds 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 Australias schools.
11 February 2023
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 Australias school system still arent on any agenda.
23 October 2022
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.
21 September 2022
Productivity Commission review ignores repressive structure of Australian school system
The Productivity Commissions interim report on school reform has conjured up some good ideas, but it ignores the regressive structure of Australias school system and how it acts as an anchor on school improvement.
27 July 2022
Waiting for Gonski: a response to Trevor Cobbold
Trevor Cobbolds 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 Australias schools, and he fails to recognise the key ingredients in any solution to the inequality (and ineffectiveness) of Australias school system.
16 May 2022
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.
27 April 2022
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, its 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.
16 March 2022
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.
13 February 2022
Will schools now get back to normal? We have to do better than that
It is critical that we dont just return to normal but take advantage of Covid disruption to address structural flaws in Australias education system.
20 April 2021
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.
24 February 2021
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 mustnt scare the punters and they should be readily understood and agreed, including by those responsible for their promotion and, with luck, implementation.
15 February 2021
Upturn in education? A few more lessons need to be learned
Tanya Pliberseks 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 didnt so much create new problems as seriously highlight and worsen old ones.
7 December 2020
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.
4 October 2020
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.
6 September 2020
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.
17 June 2020
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?
12 April 2020
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 by governments for decades.
18 March 2020
CHRIS BONNOR. Two very wicked problems in school funding
Australia certainly isnt 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.
8 March 2020
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.
20 February 2020
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.
15 December 2019
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 statements, pious hopes and an ongoing commitment to fantasy.
4 December 2019
CHRIS BONNOR. PISA the never-ending story
Its PISA time again and Australias student achievement levels continue to be miserable. The finger-pointing is in full swingagain. Someone should re-shoot Groundhog Day around the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), with a cast of education ministers, their shadows, a teacher unionist, journalists, the odd academic and crowd shots of everyone else with an opinion. It would be an easy script to learn - it has remained unchanged for well over a decade.
26 September 2019
CHRIS BONNOR. Britain's private schools in the firing line
It seems that there is more to UK politics than Brexit: Britains Labour conference has passed a motion to effectively abolish private schools and redistribute their students and even their properties to the state sector. Are there implications of such proposals for Australia and what would a similar move cost in this country?
13 August 2019
Rich school, poor school
This week the ABC kicked open the door to an overdue debate about school funding - a debate claimed to have been settled by Malcolm Turnbull two years ago. In a stunning interactive report on its website, Inga Ting and her team at the ABC unpacked and presented a disturbing picture of the capital funding of schools. Even if you arent infected by the politics of envy, just running your cursor down the list of schools might make you pause. Half of the $22 billion spend on capital projects in Australian schools between 2013 and 2017 was spent in just...
10 June 2019
CHRIS BONNOR Selective schools ... again
Making stupid policy on the run is hardly new, but Gladys Berejikliansdecision to establish a new selective school in Sydneys south-west has set new precedents. Few people seem to support it, even fewer will benefit. It ignores the debate about selective schooling, a debate underpinned by concern about the regressive impact on the unselected schools and students without any significant gains for the annointed. This captains call by the NSW premier even fails basic tests of fairness and logic.
15 May 2019
CHRIS BONNOR The education election: it's the same old song
A couple of weeks ago I wrote that school education was taking a back seat in the election campaign. With just a few days to go not much has changed: the various protagonists are making more noise, while managing to avoid the mounting wicked problems that beset school education. The coalition has stuck to business as usual without really understanding what the business is delivering; Labor knows more, but its otherwise courageous policy development has not touched education.
2 May 2019
CHRIS BONNOR. An election without education?
Commentators often express dismay that debates about policy go missing in action at election time. This time around, the vacuous reigns supreme as the election degenerates into a policy parody despite longer term policy work by the ALP and some others. But after the starting gun sounded, meaningful debate was cast aside, yet again. Serious issues seem to be off-limitsbecoming what the Guardian calls a code of silence. School education has certainly taken a back seat: no issues, no debate, nothing to present - or misrepresent. It seems that we have settled all the big debates of past years....
30 January 2019
CHRIS BONNOR. Separating scholars in Australia's schools
The beginning of the school year is a time of excitement and expectation for students and their families: a new year, new friends, and often a new school. It is also exciting for teachers and school principals as they welcome returning and new students. Principals are always keen to know how many students they will have; higher enrolments mean more resources. But they are interested in much more
26 December 2018
CHRIS BONOR. The Best of 2018: The elite schools arms race goes nuclear
Yes, it was Sunday and the news is usually more sensational than during the week. But the extravagant building plans of some elite schools, revealed in the Sun Herald, were certainly eye-opening. According to the report, two of these schools are already funded by governments well above their Schooling Resource Standard. The combined cost ($365m) of the planned capital projects at the seven named schools is close to the amount allocated to address the maintenance backlog across all public schools in NSW.
22 November 2018
CHRIS BONNOR. The ABC of school funding
Years ago the late Bernie Shepherd and I began wading through a mountain of My School data about schools. We soon discovered that the public funding of private schools was growing so rapidly that they would soon get more money from governments than was going to similar public schools. So we published our early findings which, along with our motives, were met with denials and accusations by the Catholic and Independent school peak groups. Fast forward four years and the ABC News has just produced an up-to-date and more sophisticated analysis for all to see. The situation has worsened; this...
6 November 2018
Discrimination recriminations in the debate about private schools
Debates about discrimination in schools need to go much further, argues Chris Bonnor
10 October 2018
CHRIS BONNOR. Ruddock review kicks up a storm
If short term reactions are any guide it seems that many of those who submitted to the Ruddock review into religious protections might have some cause for regret. While it is early days, it is likely to throw a timely spotlight on religious school enrolment and employment discrimination. Such discrimination already applies unevenly across Australia, but an emerging question might be why it should exist at all.
31 July 2018
CHRIS BONNOR. Catholic schools funding: here we go again.
I have a great idea to fix the drought. Give farmers drought relief, extend it to better-endowed areas with access to water and continue it long after the rain returns. The farmers I know would be horrified if this happened. But when it comes to school funding the Catholic bishops have no such shame. Every time we roll out needs-based funding we alter it to keep everyone happy and continue it for so long it becomes a permanent part of the school landscape.
19 July 2018
CHRISTINA HO AND CHRIS BONNOR. 'Hubs of concentrated advantage': selective schools need a rethink
In the debate about selective schools personal stories and beliefs can drown out evidence, especially when that evidence challenges the status quo. So we hear plenty of anecdotes about the successes of selective school students, but relatively few about the students and schools they leave behind.
30 April 2018
CHRIS BONNOR. Gonskis second coming
When they update the history of Australian school education the name Gonski, and the names of those he has worked with, deserve to be up there in lights. Hes done it again: an exhaustive investigation into what we need to do to improve school education. Will it all come to pass this time around? What can we expect?
23 March 2018
CHRIS BONNOR. Is it time to shut Goulburns Catholic School doors again?
For those who dont have a life and follow the school funding saga, the recent spat over Catholic school funding wont come as any great surprise. Labors proposed extra $250 million commitment has attracted criticism, most recently from The Australian Council of State School Organisations. The analysis and criticism focuses on various interpretations of future funding plans, but the implications are much wider. To find out more, all we have to do is cast our eyes towards Goulburn in New South Wales. To see the future we only need to look back.
14 March 2018
CHRIS BONNOR and LYNDSAY CONNORS A school funding horror story: special deals are back
Almost a year ago we thought that peace had been declared in the school funding wars. True, the Turnbull governments Gonski school funding changes fall well short on many fronts but the government did try to bury the special deals that have dogged school funding for decades. After less than a year Labor has resurrected them in a planned gift of $250 million to Catholic schools in the first two years of a new Labor government.
25 February 2018
CHRIS BONOR. The elite schools arms race goes nuclear
Yes, it was Sunday and the news is usually more sensational than during the week. But the extravagant building plans of some elite schools, revealed in the Sun Herald, were certainly eye-opening. According to the report, two of these schools are already funded by governments well above their Schooling Resource Standard. The combined cost ($365m) of the planned capital projects at the seven named schools is close to the amount allocated to address the maintenance backlog across all public schools in NSW.
20 February 2018
Indigenous education: closing - and opening - the gaps
The reports and narratives around the strategy to close the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians are quite well-known, if only because they dont change much from year to year. With the possible exception of education, not many targets are being reached.The gains in education in numeracy, reading and school retention will be welcomed by schools more used to wearing all the blame for deficiencies in student achievement. We seem to be closing the gaps that we measure, but a new report from the Centre for Policy Development shows that we risk widening the gaps that we choose to ignore...