A new organisation seeking to influence the future of Australia’s school system has launched with a team spanning school leadership, education research, policy, philanthropy and social impact.
Schools for All Australia was co-convened by Toowoomba parent Mark Morris and education philanthropist John Bush. The organisation says more than 500 people recently expressed interest in its work.
Its team includes Australian Secondary Principals Association president Andy Mison, public school principal and University of Sydney PhD candidate Caroline David, UTS Professor Rachel Wilson, former Australian Council for Educational Research director Dr Lawrence Ingvarson AM, and education author and teacher Tom Greenwell.
Other members listed by the organisation include education researchers and academics, school and community leaders, and people with backgrounds in education policy and philanthropy.
Mr Morris said his involvement began with questions about increasing segregation within Australia’s school system.
“I was not the only one to be asking big questions of our education system,” he said.
“Why do we have an increasingly segregated school system? Why hasn’t somebody done something already?”
Schools for All Australia says it aims to bring public, Catholic and independent school communities together around equity, opportunity and educational outcomes.
Its launch has been accompanied by a Call to Action, Every child, every school, every opportunity, which calls for greater public reporting of socioeconomic diversity across schools and a review of policies contributing to school segregation.
The organisation has also held a webinar examining lessons from Quebec, System Transformation is Possible: Lessons from Québec.
The webinar featured Stéphane Vigneault, co-founder and coordinator of Canadian education advocacy organisation École Ensemble, alongside former NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli, author and public education advocate Jane Caro AM and Finnish educator and University of Melbourne Professor Pasi Sahlberg.
Mr Vigneault outlined the experience of École Ensemble, which has campaigned for changes to Quebec’s education system, including greater social mixing between students.
He said the movement had focused on shifting public opinion towards a more equitable system rather than criticising families who choose selective or private schools.
A key proposal discussed was the creation of a common network of schools that would be fully funded, while reducing public funding for schools that were already well resourced.
According to Schools for All Australia, Mr Vigneault said legislation had been drafted for the Quebec parliament and described the movement as being “just one vote away from changing the system”.
Mr Piccoli said the Quebec experience had similarities with a proposal he had previously considered for Australia to fully fund primary schools, removing the need for fees.
“There are a lot of kids that can’t afford to go to a faith-based private school in Australia,” he said.
Mr Piccoli also linked educational outcomes to concentrations of disadvantage and argued that debates about school funding could overshadow broader questions about the structure of the education system.
“We are doing badly at the bottom end but aren’t exactly excelling at the top end either,” he said.
“If we designed an Australian education system today we wouldn’t design it the way it is.”
Mr Sahlberg said Australia had developed “a hybrid system which operates in different ways”.
He acknowledged that introducing a fully funded common school network would be difficult given the size of Australia’s private school sector, but said Australia needed to address the issue.
Both Mr Piccoli and Mr Sahlberg discussed the possibility of initially establishing a common network in primary schools.
Schools for All Australia says its approach is intended to move beyond longstanding public and private school debates and create greater collaboration across sectors.
The organisation says it will draw on research, evidence and international examples to contribute to policy discussions and explore potential changes to Australia’s education system.
The Australian Learning Lecture is among those involved with the initiative and partially funded a group that visited Canada to examine different approaches to education systems, according to the media release.
The organisation’s launch comes amid continuing national debate over school funding, educational disadvantage and differences between Australia’s government and non-government school sectors.
Schools for All Australia says its longer-term aim is to contribute to a school system in which every child has access to opportunity regardless of postcode, family income or school sector.