The state of public schooling

Abstract

It is widely claimed that there is a crisis in public schooling, or at the very least that there is something profoundly broken with it. This is, of course, a common reform and lobbying tactic. Real and perceived crises can provide important ‘reform windows’ whereby governments further their agenda, or whereby advocates, unions or lobby groups seek popular and political traction for theirs. Hence, although there might be broad agreement that there is a crisis of sorts, the constitution of this crisis is hotly contested. For some, the crisis lies in the perceived inability of public schooling to keep pace with the changing economic needs of Australian society. For others, such as Kevin Donnel..