Public education – Page 2

The Case for Full-service School Models in Australia

sosaustralia / November 26, 2025 / Equity in education, Funding, Public education

In their new report, the Mitchell Institute calls for full-service school models as a purpose-built solution to Australia’s growing educational inequality.

Despite decades of reform and record investment, inequality in Australian schools persists and continues to grow. Students in high-needs communities can face multiple, compounding barriers to learning: poorer health, food insecurity, unstable housing and limited access to early and ongoing supports. This can contribute to rising absenteeism, disengagement and widening achievement gaps.

The Mitchell Institute’s new report Achieving Better and Fairer Schools: The case for full-service school models in Australia argues that traditional schools are not designed to respond to these complex needs.

A different approach is needed to address the growing inequities in student engagement, wellbeing and achievement. Our report calls for full-service school models as a purpose-built solution, designed to integrate education, health and social supports so that all children have the opportunity to thrive.

What fully funded public schools could do

sosaustralia / November 13, 2025 / Equity in education, Funding, Public education

The following is the abstract of a paper by Professor Pasi Sahlberg and Trevor Cobbold published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Australia’s most disadvantaged students are heavily concentrated in under-resourced public schools, worsening gaps in learning, wellbeing and life outcomes. Although governments have pledged to fully fund public schools through the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement 2025–2034, most schools will still fall short of their Schooling Resource Standard due to delayed and diluted implementation. The article argues that new investment estimated more than $20 billion over the decade must be directed to schools with the greatest need. Evidence shows four effective priorities: full-service school models, stronger family engagement, healthy school meals, and eliminating compulsory fees. Equity requires not just funding, but targeted, sustained action.

New Study Shows Public Schools Bear the Greatest Burden of Disadvantage

sosaustralia / February 3, 2025February 18, 2025 / Equity in education, Funding, Media releases, Public education

A new research paper published by Save Our Schools shows that public schools bear a very large burden of disadvantage but are under-resourced for the challenge. “Public schools have to do a lot more with fewer resources than Catholic and Independent schools”, said National Convenor, Trevor Cobbold.

“Income per student in public schools is 91.5% of the income of Catholic schools but the percentage of students from low socio-educationally advantaged (SEA) families in public schools is nearly 200% of that in Catholic schools.

“Income per student in public schools is only 70.5% of that of Independent schools while their percentage of low SEA students is 285.6% of that in Independent schools.

Public Schools Bear the Greatest Burden of Disadvantage

Trevor Cobbold / February 3, 2025February 9, 2025 / Equity in education, Funding, Public education

A new research paper published by Save Our Schols shows conclusively that public schools bear the greatest burden of disadvantage but are not resourced to overcome its effect on learning outcomes. Public schools have to do a lot more with far fewer resources than Catholic and Independent schools.

The study shows that income per student in public schools is 91.5% of the income of Catholic schools but the percentage of students from low socio-educationally advantaged (SEA) families in public schools is nearly 200% of that in Catholic schools. Income per student in public schools is only 70.5% of that of Independent schools while their percentage of low SEA students is 285.6% of that in Independent schools.

Private Schools Had The Biggest Decline in PISA Results

Trevor Cobbold / December 18, 2023December 18, 2023 / Funding, Public education

Catholic and Independent schools had the biggest declines in the OECD’s Programme of Student Assessment (PISA) test results since 2009. Their students lost 1½ to nearly two years of learning in reading, mathematics and science. The falls in test scores were far bigger than for public schools.

The learning loss in Catholic and Independent schools occurred even though they were heavily favoured by government funding increases since 2009. Government (Commonwealth and state/territory) funding, adjusted for inflation, increased by $2,697 per student in Catholic schools and by $2,310 in Independent schools between 2009 and 2021 compared to $1,062 in public schools.

Fully Funding Private Schools is No Solution to Inequity in Education

Trevor Cobbold / September 21, 2023September 26, 2023 / Equity in education, Public education

This article is a summary of a new Education Policy Brief. The full Brief can be downloaded below.

The proposal of Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor to fully fund private schools. subject to them not charging fees and not enrolling students on the basis of ability, abrogates key long standing principles of public education, namely, that public schools are secular and do not discriminate on the basis of student background. The proposal explicitly permits private schools to promulgate their religious beliefs and values and to discriminate against students and teachers who do not share these beliefs. This is anathema to the founding principles of public education. Public schools must remain secular and take all comers, whatever their background, to provide access to education for all and to promote understanding and tolerance between different social groups.

The Lost Decade of School Autonomy in NSW

Trevor Cobbold / August 19, 2023 / Public education

It is just over ten years since the school autonomy program called Local Schools, Local Decisions commenced in NSW. It has been a lost decade. It was supposed to increased student results but high inequity in education continues with more bureaucracy, less central support for schools and bigger workloads for principals and teachers.

The stated goal of Local Schools, Local Decisions was to improve student outcomes. There is scant evidence of this in NSW NAPLAN results. They show shocking inequalities in school outcomes between highly advantaged and disadvantaged students with few improvements since 2010.

School Autonomy and Social Justice in Education

Trevor Cobbold / August 5, 2023 / National issues, Public education

The following is a speech by Trevor Cobbold to a form at Deakin Univeristy to launch a report on School Autonomy Reform and Social Justice in Australian Public Education. The Report is available here.

First of all, I would like to congratulate the project team on its work. It has provided one of the most comprehensive reviews of the literature on school autonomy and contributed greatly to our knowledge about the implementation of school autonomy in Australian schools and its impact on students, teachers and principals.

Rather than review the array of its findings I would like to focus on a few key issues:

The meaning of social justice in education;
School autonomy and student achievement;
School autonomy and the bureaucratisation of schooling.

Private Schools Had the Biggest Funding Increases and the Biggest Falls in School Results

Trevor Cobbold / February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 / Equity in education, Funding, Public education

Some of the commentary on the Productivity Commission report on the National Schools Reform Agreement drew a simplistic and highly misleading link between increased school funding and results. It ignored the key facts that Catholic and Independent schools had the largest funding increases since 2009 and the largest declines in international test results. The figures suggest that private schools are much less efficient that public schools, especially given that public schools enrol the vast majority of disadvantaged students.

A Guide to Research on Vouchers

sosaustralia / November 30, 2022 / Choice and competition, Funding, Public education

School vouchers have devastating effects on student outcomes. Full stop. .

Large-scale independent studies in D.C.,Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio show that for kids who left public schools, harmful voucher impacts actually meet or exceed what the pandemic did to test scores. That’s also a similar impact in Louisiana to what Hurricane Katrina did to student achievement back in 2005.

Think about that next time you hear a politician or activist claim we need taxpayer support for private schools to offset what the pandemic did to student learning. Here, their cure would in test score terms be quite literally worse than the disease.