Media reporting of MySchool ‘simplistic’: Catholic Education WA

Top Catholic Education leaders see the MySchool 2.0 website as a new dawn for information for parents. They’re less happy with what they see as the media’s simplistic reporting of its usefulness.

SINCE unveiling the second version of the MySchool website in early March, Education Minister Peter Garrett has been fielding questions about the future of school funding in Australia. 
Every school’s recurrent and capital expenditure has been displayed in a comparative format for the first time.  Students’ literacy and numeracy data, NAPLAN (National Assessment Programme – Literacy and Numeracy), collated over three years for each school has also been displayed.
Whilst debate continues over the value of the new MySchool V2.0 website, the Education Minister heralds a new era in information available to parents. “MySchool 2.0 will provide information on every school in Australia, giving parents and the public access to performance and financial data on our schools – information that has previously only been available to education bureaucrats or school authorities” Mr Garrett said. 
Catholic Education WA CEO Ron Dullard said that “in principle, having this information available for parents and the community in general is welcomed by Catholic Education”. 
“It means that the public is given access to information regarding aspects of the operation of each school,” he said.
The National Catholic Education Commission also applauded the extra transparency delivered by the new website. “Parents can now see what resources are available to spend on their child,” Commission Chair Therese Temby said.
However, some of the financial and demographic data has been presented in the media in a manner that is simplistic. 
For instance, last Thursday’s (10 March) article in The Australian newspaper entitled “Poor disadvantaged by broken system”, strikes at the very core of the ethos of Catholic Education across Australia. 
For a system that has as its mandate taking care of the vulnerable and socially and educationally disadvantaged in our society, this article highlights precisely why there is concern in the education sector about making comparisons between schools. The table compares Aranmore Catholic College with Woodvale Senior High School, which has a similar level of educational advantage but that is where any similarity ends.
Woodvale SHS has 1,404 students, Aranmore Catholic College has 617 students. 
Woodvale has no Indigenous students whereas Aranmore has seven per cent Indigenous students. Woodvale has 13 per cent of students who have a Language Background Other than English (LBOTE) whereas Aranmore has 33 per cent LBOTE and must fund an Intensive Language centre.
Aranmore also has a high student population from refugee families. 
All of this information is clearly shown on the MySchool 2.0 website but for the purpose of the article, this additional information, which directly influences and affects funding, has been ignored and hence provides a skewed picture to the wider community. Similar instances have been cited for other Catholic schools across the nation targeted by this article.
Mrs Temby signified the dangers as this type of miscommunication presented by The Australian could cause people to buy into a “simplistic public versus private funding debate” rather than recognising the complexity of educational funding.
Early National figures released by School Education Minister Peter Garrett show that an average $11,100 is spent per student at public schools, $10,000 at Catholic schools and $13,700 at private schools. 
In WA, public school costs outstrip private schools’. An average $13,585 is spent per student in State schools compared with $12,756 in independent schools and $10,722 in Catholic schools. This is understandable given the geographical diversity of Western Australia and that there are a number of high cost special needs schools operated by the Department of Education.
Catholic schools, however, continue to demonstrate their ability to operate efficiently and achieve very good outcomes with the resources at their disposal.
Any funding debate must closely investigate the fact that Catholic schools are focused on ensuring equity of access and opportunity.
Catholic Systems play an important role in ensuring access to Catholic schools by planning new schools in regions of need, cross-subsidising the operations of high need schools, maintaining an educational presence in rural and remote regions and providing additional facilities such as boarding functions. 
Equity is ensured, amongst other things, through school fee and charges policies, including fee relief and waivers, and a commitment to enrolling special need groups such as Aboriginal, refugee, low SES and students with disabilities.  The data from our schools illustrates the effectiveness of Catholic Education in Western Australia and the diversity in our school communities. Catholic schools in Western Australia are located from Kununurra to Esperance.
Of these, eight are in remote Indigenous communities where this is the only available school.  The high cost of running these schools is an ongoing issue for all involved in education.  Increased government commitment to such students will continue to help address the educational outcomes for these students. 
The high cost of educating students with disabilities is also illustrated on the MySchool 2.0 website with special education centres requiring significant recurrent income per student.  Students with disabilities have access to a mainstream education in Catholic schools and so the real cost is not as easily identified within the individual school data. 
Catholic schools use a co-responsibility model of funding where higher costs of education for remote communities or those with special needs are shared amongst schools.
“The reality is that important aspects of our school communities such as religion, pastoral care, sense of belonging and diversity are not reflected on the MySchool 2.0 website,” Mr Dullard said.
“There is no doubt that there will be particular comparisons made between schools that will result in much time being spent explaining variances when the time should more productively be used in providing a better education for our students.”
Interestingly, at a recent conference for concerned educators held at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Professor Brian Caldwell, education consultant and former dean of education at Melbourne University, cautioned that “current policy will inhibit creativity in schooling.” Professor Caldwell, along with representatives of principals’ and teachers’ groups, called for the next version of the website to include qualitative assessments of the students’ total experience of school. 
Mr Dullard said: “Catholic schools excel at catering for the ‘whole person’ with Christ as our example and the Gospel teachings as our guide. We maintain an education system all over the State that enhances life opportunities for every child in our care.”