In Australia, some of the schools are run by religious organisations, like the Anglican Church. It’s not the best situation — for many students it involves going to religious services, which is the opposite of education. Apparently, going to mass can be quite boring. But these schools are a part of the system, and they do a good job.
The problem is that these schools get tax money from the government. Say, what’s to stop them from taking some of that money — paid by tax payers, intended for educating kids — and funneling it to the Anglican Church? Apparently nothing, because that’s just what happened in Perth.
Private schools have kicked in thousands of dollars to help bail out the Anglican Perth diocese after it was hit by the global economic crisis.
The school-backed bailout comes in the face of a crackdown on the use of government grants by Education Minister Liz Constable, who said she would be concerned if grants were not spent on running schools.
Mirrabooka’s John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School, which relies on taxpayers for about 70 per cent of its funding, emerged as the biggest contributor after Perth Anglican Archbishop Roger Herft appealed for help to run his diocesan council.
Archdiocese records show the school gave $30,000 to the appeal, double the $15,000 contribution from wealthy Christ Church Grammar School in Claremont.
The high-fee St Mary’s Anglican Girls School in Karrinyup chipped in $12,500 and All Saints College in Bull Creek $10,000.
But Hale School in Wembley Downs refused to hand over school funds to the diocese council, branding the move inappropriate.
At this stage, it’s not clear how much of the money came from taxes and how much came from fees paid by parents. Either way, it’s an outrage. That money was intended to educate kids, and instead it’s being shoveled into the coffers of the Anglican Church to keep it afloat.
This is why it’s a bad idea to have religions run schools. When public funds are involved, with no accountability, it’s inevitable that the parent organisation will put some pressure on the schools during hard times. The schools need to open their books and show where the money’s going. And if it’s going to some church and not to the kids, they need to be defunded or turned into a public school. We need more good public schools.
13 December 2009 at 5:58 pm
Ya know, one of the big loopholes here in the states is that the christian madras' here would run with or without gov't. money. so when we give it to them it's really just taking that expense away so that they can fund evangelizing.