Equality is for other people's children

July 20, 2026

With reference to John Frew’s letter on public schools. Around 50 years ago one Henry Schoenheimer, an academic in the School of Education at La Trobe Uni and a correspondent for The Australian wrote a piece where he argued equality in education was for other people’s children. Today this is surely the case. Citizens come up with all sorts of reasons their offspring can’t possibly attend the local state high school but really it is all about getting ahead in life’s grand race and at the same time mixing with the right peer group and not the awful plebs forced to attend government provision. Just listen to the parents as they pick up and drop off their kids at the high priced so called private schools – all heavily subsidised by the state, of course.