January 19, 2003
Opposition leader John Brogden's plan to publicly "rate" the performance of schools has been condemned as "educational vandalism" by the Greens.
Murray Matson, the Greens Coogee candidate, claims that the proposal will,
"...turn education into a market commodity in which lower scoring schools will be forced out of business".
He elaborated,
"This Liberal proposal is a negative market-based solution to the issue of improving education outcomes.
What Brogden should be doing is using the performance ratings to target resources and funding to public schools that clearly need them.
All Brogden's plan will do is encourage parents to act like consumers and abandon lower scoring schools. It will effectively put the knife into many public schools and will allow the Government to scope goat them into oblivian"
The Greens have called on the Liberal leader to promise not to publicly reveal the performance comparison.
Mr Matson said,
"Mr Brogden should give an undertaking that if elected, his education and treasury ministers will not release the performance results but will instead channel resources to those public schools that are clearly having to do it hard."