Tom Greenwell
Tom Greenwell is co-author with Chris Bonnor of ‘Waiting for Gonski: How Australia failed its schools’ and ‘Choice and Fairness: a common framework for all Australian schools’. He worked on research commissioned by the Review to Inform a Better and Fairer Education System.
Tom's recent articles
16 August 2025
A better and fairer school system? Just look to Canada
Ontario implemented needs-based funding a quarter of a century ago, and the benefits go beyond student achievement.
17 December 2023
New review makes groundbreaking call for transformation of Australia’s school system
The results from the OECD’s PISA tests released last week showed that in Australia demography is destiny, revealing that by the time young people reach Year 9 a staggering five years of learning separates students from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds. This week, a major report advanced a compelling explanation for our educational woes - and pointed to the way to immediate and long-term solutions.
20 June 2023
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.
22 September 2022
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.
28 July 2022
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 ingredients in any solution to the inequality (and ineffectiveness) of Australia’s school system.
17 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.
24 March 2022
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.
17 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.
14 February 2022
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.