This article is a response to Kevin Donnelly's article, "The Australian Education Union: A History of Opposing School Choice and School Autonomy Down-Under," and aims to correct specific errors and misrepresentations as found by Susan Hopgood, Federal Secretary of the Australian Education Union. She argues that the article is misleading…

This paper focuses on the issue of separate schooling. Diverse societies use schools to develop shared value systems, strengthen democratic engagements and provide better educational outcomes. However, in Europe, the United States, Australia and elsewhere groups of parents and communities have been invoking human rights claims to challenge the…

Australia has been one of the countries to most enthusiastically embrace the neo-liberal conditions conducive to the dismantling of equitably provided public schooling. The article argues that part of the explanation for the absence of any effective challenge to this trajectory lies in the contradictory nature of the Australian identity. The…

This paper examines the role played by educational reform (as advocated by economic rationalism) in the economic destruction of Australian society. It is argued that two mechanisms for containing economic difficulties are the plundering of the nation state and the application of new technologies of production. Strategies of educational reform, as…

Because contemporary society accepts inequalities in income and social privilege, its tolerance for the varied and divergent educational consumption of its citizens is understandable. However, the acceptance of a dual educational system by parents, local authorities, and governments has implications for government involvement and educational…

This book demonstrates that liberal policy cannot adequately address deep-seated assumptions and traditional practices that undermine minorities and women in schools. Chapters focus on educational policy and its implementation at all levels of school politics in the United States, Australia, and Israel. Part 1, "Cutting Across Race and…

The balance of public-private schooling in Australia is unstable, and public schooling may become primarily a safety net for students not served by private schools. There are unequal exchanges of bright and motivated pupils and influential and articulate parents away from the public schools, a process which fuels its own momentum. Reform proposals…

In Australian educational policy debate, advocacy of choice and diversity has come to be linked to support for educational markets and therefore with educational reform and restructuring associated with "economic rationalism." This paper argues that choice and diversity are better conceived within a framework of democratic educational…

This essay offers a preliminary examination of public support for private elementary and secondary education as it is incorporated into the systems of Denmark, Australia, and Holland. Its purpose is to stimulate American thinking about family choice systems. After a brief introduction on the ad hoc quality differentials in American public…

Pursuant to the emerging political issue of government financial support for private schools in the United States, a study was made of the Australian system of educational finance, which includes substantial government aid to nongovernment schools. Following a historical analysis and typology of government educational policy in both countries, a…