The left planted its flag atop the educational establishment long ago. If we are to hope for better schools and smarter kids, that dominance must be overturned

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Not only does Kevin Rudd's Better Schools Plan put church schools at a financial disadvantage, his national curriculum dismisses Australia's judeo-Christian heritage while promoting cultural relativism as the state religion in all but name

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Christianity and its shaping influence on Australian history and society are to be expelled from the classroom under Gillard's campaign to "reform" education. In its place, the post-modern creed of cultural relativism

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At a time when other Western education systems are granting greater autonomy to local schools, the Gillard government is tugging on purse strings to assert Canberra's dominance and control

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The federal government operates no schools and employs not a single teacher, but its ambition to usurp parental responsibility while hobbling the states with red tape is boundless

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If we are egalitarian in our intention we have to reshape education so that it is a vital weapon in the transition to more equal outcomes for disadvantaged groups and classes rather than a ladder to equal opportunity for individuals.                                —   Joan Kirner, Victorian Fabian Society Pamphlet 41  Funding arrangements should, “ensure that differences […]

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In the July-August 2009 edition of Quadrant I wrote an essay, “The Politics of School Choice” in which I argued in favour of choice and diversity in education and warned that the ALP federal government’s rhetoric about supporting non-government schools could not be believed. I also signalled that the then Rudd government, with Julia Gillard as […]

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The Rudd government fulfilled its 2007 election promise to develop a national curriculum by establishing a National Curriculum Board in early 2008 (now known as the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority). At the time, while welcoming the move to what was described as a more academically-minded approach to the curriculum, I argued that such […]

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That the history curriculum appears to have been written by cultural warriors of the left most likely explains why, on studying the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, that McCarthyism is mentioned, but not Stalin's purges or the role of Ronald Reagan in defeating what he termed the evil empire.

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The Hawke, Keating and Howard governments had a proud record of reform in many areas but, when it comes to the school curriculum, Julia Gillard has achieved more in two years than her predecessors managed in a quarter of a century. The draft national curriculum released this week for kindergarten-to-Year 10 is a major achievement […]

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