Properly funding public schools the answer to "white flight"

In the last month, the Sydney Morning Herald published a number of front page articles on a report by the NSW Secondary Principals Council revealing how white Australian students are increasingly fleeing public schools, leaving behind those of Aboriginal and Middle Eastern origin.

The article reported that "Around Sydney, the parents of some Anglo-European students are avoiding what they perceive as predominantly Lebanese, Muslim and Asian schools" and that "Not only have some public schools lost enrolments; they have become racially segregated. In pockets of rural and remote NSW, Aboriginal students fill public schools and white students attend Catholic and other private schools in the same town." See full article here.

The findings of the research, if true, are obviously of concern to us. The success of Australian multiculturalism has always relied on Australians from all cultures interacting with each other in everyday life activities. An important aspect of that interaction is found in the education system, which for many people represents their first real opportunity to experience meeting someone from a different cultural background. Polarisation of schools based on ethnicity or faith undermines those opportunities, and with that, multiculturalism.

What can be done to address this trend? Racists would probably seize on those reports as supporting evidence that people of different cultures cannot peacefully co-exist. But that would be a simplistic analysis. It assumes that students are leaving pubic schools as a result of fear of other students from another ethnicity.

There is however another more optimistic explanation. Parents, no matter from what ethnicity or religion all want their children to receive the best educational opportunities possible. And perhaps they are not confident that the public education system is currently providing those opportunities. Hence, the movement to private, religious, and selective schools by those who are most able to afford to do so. Statistically, they are more likely to be Anglo-celtic Australians. On the other hand, many families from migrant backgrounds are still the most likely to face financial disadvantages. The latter do not have the luxuary of choice. Financial circumstances could therefore be a major contributor to the segregation.

Thus part of the solution to this issue, and one supported by the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW is for increased funding and support to public schools and its teachers. If parents can be confident that their children will receive the same high quality educational opportunities no matter where they are schooled, that will go a long way towards addressing the white flight phenomena.