Graham Catt, CEO of Independent Schools Australia (ISA), has indicted a nationwide campaign in Greens and marginal electorates is in the works. It’s a bid to call out the ‘relentless’ and ‘misleading’ attacks on independent schools, he said. 

Catt suggested the campaign, while largely still under wraps, would be targeted at urging constituents not to support parties that want to see funding to the sector scrapped. 

Catt told EducationHQ it was unfortunate that the discussion around the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement had largely turned into an assault on independent schools.

“There is a not a teacher, a school leader, and I’m sure there’s not a parent in an independent school out there, that would actually not want to see our government schools fully and fairly funded, and we support ministers and Minister Clare in that objective.

“What we are concerned about is when that objective deteriorates again, into a conversation which is essentially (how) that objective can somehow be achieved by taking away resources from one sector … which we don’t think is fair.

“[Independent school parents] feel like they are being attacked and vilified in the media for people to achieve a political objective,” Catt said.

Over the past few decades, the press has been building an entirely misleading picture of independent schools across the country, Catt added.

“We’re seeing comments about these schools being wealthy, elite and overfunded – these are the words that are consistently being used.

“We know that actually, the majority of schools in the independent sector are actually mid to low-fee schools…”

The median fee in independent schools sits at ‘just over’ $5000 a year, Catt reported.

“The majority of schools are actually charging fees in the range of $3000-6000, so they are low to mid-fee schools.

“And we know that about 60 per cent of students in those schools actually come from low to mid-income families. The research that we have done shows that … those parents are making genuine sacrifices to send their child to that school they feel is best for them.”

 

Catt has accused the Greens of leading a ‘divisive’ campaign against independent schools.

Media coverage of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement had been ‘relentless’ in pointing the finger at independent schools as the source of all systemic ills within education, Catt suggested.

“It really is distressing for families and for teachers and educators.

“When I say it’s been relentless, certainly the coverage of school funding over the course of this year just seems to be every week there’s another story that uses this (‘elite’ and ‘wealthy’) language to get this point across.”

Catt lamented that the conversation had become all about money, with a “relentlessly divisive campaign” led by the Australian Greens and the Australian Education Union (AEU) on this front.

“The AEU and The Greens are advocating for particular outcomes, they are suggesting the cause of the problems that we have is the fact that independent schools are funded.

“We are meant to be having a national conversation about how we create a better and fairer school system, and I think for that to happen, we need all school sectors ... to be working together, we need to be collaborating with ideas, with a common purpose, and instead, unfortunately, that discussion seems to be purely about money,” Catt said.

In an opinion piece published by The Australian and shared with EducationHQ, Catt argued there was a real hypocrisy in the “elitist” narrative, which he said “conveniently ignores the inequalities in government school systems”.

“In affluent areas, for example, parents are ‘buying’ access to well-resourced government schools by paying astronomical prices to live in government school catchment areas.

“The reality is that these schools are selective, accessible only by the wealthy or by students out of the catchment that schools can select based on any criteria they set…” he wrote.

Catt would like to see better representation of the ‘incredible’ diversity that exists within the independent school sector. 

“The portrayal of the sector of only high-fee schools in capital cities, really just doesn’t paint a picture of what’s out there.”

School principal Rebecca West has previously called out the mainstream media for shoring up ‘fault lines’ within the teaching profession – what she deems to be invisible ravines of distrust and animosity that divide school systems and sectors.

Articles that serve to pit public schools against private schools are an obvious and frequent example of how the media can drive division amongst teachers, West said.

“That’s always the conversation that we’ve seen in the media and often with parents too – parents’ opinion about [what system is] ‘better’ for the kids.

“That kind of [framing] can cause a rift within the profession, when we all trained in the same universities, we all have the same qualifications,” West said. 

Catt said with the enormous challenges facing the teaching profession in areas spanning recruitment, retention and shortages, independent schools were keen to work on finding solutions, Catt said

“There is fantastic work being done in independent schools, that they’re really keen to share…

“If we could actually work across sectors, if we could actually work supporting each other instead of attacking each other … there are some really good stories that would help us address some of the challenges we have.”