Opinion - Daily Telegraph - Education

Coalition will offer all parents a choice on their child's education

YOU'D be hard pressed to find any parent who would agree an ”education revolution” has occurred in their child's school over the past three years.

Promised in 2007 and much talked about in 2008, the Rudd government claimed it would revolutionise education, which by definition should be sweeping and profound change.

These days the Gillard Government doesn't often mention the words ”education revolution”. In fact, if the latest report into OECD countries is correct, then Australian education standards have been in decline since 2000. This is because true revolutionary reform requires courage of convictions and determination to follow through with decisions.

The Coalition's commitment to choice and diversity in education is a core value that flavours all our policies.

We believe that government has a clear role to encourage diversity by ensuring that all schools receive proper funding. An example of these values was our promise at the 2010 election to introduce an Education Card for students with a disability that would pay up to $20,000 in additional funding per student directly to schools.

Every parent wants the right to choose an education that will allow their child to reach their full potential.

Had the Coalition been elected, our policy would have allowed parents with disabled children a choice of schools, as non-government schools do not receive the same level of support that helps cover the additional expense involved in accommodating students with disabilities.

This means that independent and Catholic schools often simply don't have the resources to offer students with a disability a place.

It was an exciting policy, and one we will continue to refine, but this was only the start of our plans for the education card. It was always our intention to use this limited form of the education card as a launching pad for an expanded policy that would cover other students faced with educational disadvantage. While the Coalition and Labor both believe families with lower socioeconomic status, disabled children and children from remote geographical locations should have the same academic opportunities as everyone else, the approach to achieve this is fundamentally different.

Labor will never support a portable schools funding system for disadvantaged students because of their links to opponents of portable funding such as the Australian Education Union. Unions argue that funding for vouchers would detract from funding of government schools.

In contrast, the Coalition supports a carefully implemented, portable funding system for disadvantaged students where parents get to make the decision about where their child is educated, not the government.

Sounds much more like a genuine education revolution.