It’s no secret our education system is one of many government institutions at breaking point. Our children are the ones who are suffering with student academic results showing a steady decline and an increase in youth mental health presentations. Staffing shortages and unprecedented violent attacks are at the forefront of the crisis.  

I have worked in the system implementing my performing arts programs witnessing firsthand where its failings lie. An overhaul is long overdue. A holistic approach needs to be taken to policy with the priorities of supporting our teachers, protecting our children, improving their academic outcomes and bridging the equality gap for socioeconomically disadvantaged children. Parents need to be given more school choices and the opportunity to take their power back.

Australian families have begun homeschooling their children, 30,000 at last count, in response, citing philosophical reasons as the main motivation behind their transition.

Curriculum at a local primary school includes assignments on the LGBTQIA+ mob. The transgender industry is worth billions to big pharma and, with the Government’s new conversion bill in Victoria, it’s illegal to deny your child treatment as child mutilation becomes suddenly “safe and effective”.  

My 9-year-old son is enrolled at his second primary school after a tough decision to move. He wasn’t the only child uprooted due to a teacher’s incompetency. Underperforming teachers seem commonplace and they are safeguarded by unions which just enables detrimental impacts to our children’s progression, health and wellbeing.  

I believe good education is the answer to a lot of problems in our society and is undeniably a vital part of our children’s social development. My suggestions for education reform to improve our school’s culture and student outcomes include:   

• Introduce Charter Schools
  The United States has charter schools, privately-operated, government-funded schools with flexible staffing arrangements. If introduced in Australia, I’d like to see them have the ability to opt-out of the National Curriculum. Studies have shown charter school students have improved academic performance compared with their traditional public school counterparts, creating healthy competition in a country’s education system.
• Scrap School Zoning
  Zoning restricts schools with specialist programs. Students with rare talents are, by definition, drawn from a wider geographical catchment. Zoning thwarts this which, in turn, makes it hard for schools to keep their specialist programs running. The Government, in effect, is stifling the market. So parents are restricted from selecting a school that is the right fit for their child. Solution? Scrap school zoning.
• Arts Training & Specialist Classes
  Statistics show that children who consistently participate in arts education are four times more likely to be recognised for academic achievement, especially in maths, science, and English language arts. Including specialist classes creates happier children, helps them identify their talents faster, and relieves educators with the extra time they need for class planning. 
• Grant the Authority to Hire & Fire Teachers
  Why should poor quality teachers become a responsibility of the State? Allow principals to recruit and terminate teachers.
• Teacher and Principal Performance Reviews
  Let’s institute KPIs so high-quality teachers and principals grow professionally. Weed-out those who don’t care or are ill-suited to education.
• Greater Professional Development
  Here’s an idea whose time has come: Mandatory professional development and ongoing training of all teachers in evidence-based practices in line with current pedagogical research to provide our teachers with every opportunity to succeed. Let’s upskill our educators.
• Performance Pay
  Giving good teachers financial incentives to stay, and encouraging more good educators into the profession. It works in business. Let’s do it in education.
• Cut Red Tape
  Streamline compliance and policy paperwork to take the burden from teachers so they can spend more time nurturing their students.
• Camps Are Part of the Job
  Scrap teacher’s time off in lieu payment arrangement so that schools can afford to take children on camp again.
• Investigation into Spending
  Victorian schools are sites for blowout big builds not fit for purpose. Our public system is becoming another bloated government cesspool open to corruption. While new facilities can enhance education, money in the sector should be spent where it’s needed most.
• Back to Basics
  A school’s main purpose should be delivering structured learning of fundamental academic subjects. We need to focus on getting this back on track.
• Opt-Out of Curriculum
  With the government determined to use schools to push its social and political ideologies, content transparency and the option to opt-out of certain topics if it doesn’t align with a family’s values is essential. Children are receiving information they are not developmentally ready to process which is a cause for great concern.
• Parents Know Best
  School councils and parent-teacher associations are being marginalised more and more. Parents deserve a say in how their child is educated and how their school is run.
• Reasonable Behavioural Standards & Respect
  A rigorous culture of high expectations implemented using structured, predictable and accountable disciplinary measures (including handing phones in to a homeroom teacher at the start of each day) is proven to have better academic performance and achievement outcomes particularly for disadvantaged students.  

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

As the university semester begins and students head back to classes for another year, it is worth examining the troubling history and reality of Western higher education.

THE INCOME CEILING

It is widely acknowledged that without a university education the ability to earn an income can be limited. While trades, vocational institutions and technical colleges do present lucrative opportunities, achieving a six-figure income is more difficult for those who choose not to pursue university study. A bachelor’s degree is even becoming an insufficient prerequisite in some cases, with employers demanding, whether overtly or covertly, post-graduate qualifications.

But has it always been necessary to spend three to ten years at university to achieve a worthwhile income?

ARTES LIBERALES

Throughout much of human history, entry to most professions has been achieved via apprenticeship. Aspiring lawyers and doctors spent years working in law offices or hospitals shadowing actual lawyers and doctors – and providing actual value – instead of years in a centralised institution.

Government should not only get out of the business of universities, but also regulating merit

Even today in California, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, aspiring lawyers can practice law after several years of apprenticeship study. In Maine, New York and Wyoming practice is permitted with a combination of apprenticeship study and only one or two years of law school.

In a similar vein, in many parts of the world it is possible to attain a PhD by publishing a collection of material that shows noteworthy advancement in the field of study; formalised post-graduate study with a dissertation is not required.

While many conservatives and libertarians criticise the modern university landscape for providing useless degrees and failing to adequately prepare students for the modern workplace, this has never been their role. Universities were never supposed to be the employee-creation factories that people now expect them to be. Liberal arts education (septem artes liberales) has been the traditional academic course in Western higher education for centuries.

It is only in very modern times that we have come to see university as a necessary piece of the education puzzle: a place where most late teenagers and young adults are expected to go after completing their state-mandated education. Throughout most of history, university was a place exclusively reserved for the children of elite, often noble, families; a place where rich parents sent their children to become more worldly and provide more interesting conversation at dinner parties.

MODERN PROBLEMS

For 90% of their history, universities were an elite luxury. From its ancient origins, it was a place to satiate those with a scholarly desire for understanding. And while there certainly is utility in such a pursuit, it was only for those not encumbered by the toils of labour.

It is widely acknowledged that without a university education the ability to earn an income can be limited. 

The reflection of this in modern universities is obvious: lush, green campuses stretch out across hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of prime real estate. And while scholars are no longer expected to be rich nobles, students still rely on the luxury of other people’s labour. In fact, the universities of old had more credibility because at least the cost was borne by a rich family rather than the ordinary taxpayer.

Now, non-university-educated taxpayers not only pay for the cost of another person’s education, they pay them a modest stipend while they study. More than that, they pay for the privilege of further enhancing this bloated institution.

MODERN SOLUTIONS

While modern universities still provide value and certainly have a place within the education-workforce dynamic, that place is greatly overstated. I would have no problem being operated on by a surgeon who had no formal qualifications but had spent many years being trained in the real world by actual doctors – in fact, I would choose this surgeon over one a modern university had spat out.

The fact that governments have partnered with this obscure government-but-not-government institution and then insisted it is the only institution that can deem someone worthy of high-paying work is the kind of fascism that should have university students everywhere in uproar.
Government should not only get out of the business of universities, but also regulating merit. The market is actually incredibly good at optimising for merit. Similarly, employers need to stop overvaluing the merits of university education, particularly post-graduate education, and realise that universities have never been concerned about their hiring preferences.