Australians can find public education reform in Canada

Rednecks rescuing public education? Never. In fact, it’s happening in pockets of North America. Accountability is back in fashion and it is a boon for public education. And it may just happen here in Australia.

As education becomes a pivotal issue for the Howard Government, the Coalition may end up thanking the self-styled progressive teachers unions for that electoral gift. Each time their union leaders bang on about political issues, it’s a reminder that they are less interested in what ought to be their core concern: educating Australian children.

Far from working to destroy public education, as the teachers unions allege, the conservatives may just end up saving it. But more on that later.

First, to the shifting electoral sands. Education has long been regarded as Labor’s stronghold, an issue that differentiated the ALP from the Coalition. In October 2003 a Newspoll survey revealed that Labor was ahead by 13 points when voters were asked who was best able to handle education.

Similarly, Kim Beazley has been regarded, by and large, as more capable on education than John Howard. That appears to be changing. A Newspoll survey last week revealed that Howard is seen as just as capable as Beazley when it comes to education.

It’s too early to talk of firm trends in favour of Howard on education, but the gap is closing. As a point of contrast, on the Coalition’s traditional strength – handling the economy – it continues to significantly outscore Labor. The October survey had the Coalition ahead by 32 points on the economy front. As Newspoll chairman Sol Lebovic told The Australian: “You don’t see that (differentiation) in Labor’s strength on education.” So education is well and truly up for grabs. Given that 75 per cent of Australian voters rate education as very important in determining who gets their vote, it’s clear that Howard will use education as an electoral issue next year.

If it turns out to be a winner for Howard, the teachers unions will be the dunces who handed it to him. Last week The Daily Telegraph reported that the NSW Teachers Federation announced that teachers should not be compelled to include comments about students’ performance in school reports. That’s from the same union that is blocking any movement towards A to E grading of students of subjects apart from literacy and numeracy. As that newspaper’s editorial asked, where does that leave the school report card? Looking rather blank?

The unions also opposed suggestions by federal Education Minister Julie Bishop that teachers be remunerated according to merit, not merely seniority. They scoffed at the idea that principals are best placed to determine the good teachers who deserve greater rewards. It happens in every workplace across Australia, but in schools? Forget about it.

Bloviating against reform on the dubious basis that teachers unions know best, they also opposed moves to inject a greater focus on phonetic instruction into literacy. The knee-jerk rejection by the most powerful teachers union of education reforms suggested by the Howard Government highlights the politicised nature of the unions’ agenda. That and the fact union leaders regularly spill the political beans in the most colourful way.

It’s worth repeating the political outbursts for the simple reason that they may explain why more voters are looking to Howard for leadership on education. Recall NSW English Teachers Association president Wayne Sawyer blaming the re-election of the Howard Government in 2004 on the failure of teachers to create a “critical generation”. Then came Australian Education Union president Pat Byrne declaring that teachers needed to be on the progressive side of politics.

In her prepared speech to the Queensland Teachers Union conference last year, Byrne complained that “it was not a good time to be progressive in Australia” but assured her union constituency that “the conservatives have a lot of work to do to undo the progressive curriculum”.

It’s a neat reminder to parents of who to blame for curriculum woes. The Coalition is inching forward in the polls on education for one simple reason: the so-called progressive agenda thrust on schools has not worked. Every time a unionist calls for more of the same, it may just translate into another point in the polls for the Coalition on education.

Alas, some of our education union leaders are not smart enough to work that out. Who can forget Byrne attacking the Coalition for casting the education debate in terms of conservative values.

“It has framed the debate in terms of choice, excellence, quality, values, discipline,” she said. Crikey. You can almost hear parents saying: “If progressives are opposed to choice, excellence, quality, values and discipline, it’s time to give the conservatives a go.”

Next week, teachers will desert the classroom to march in the National Day of Union and Community Action, railing against the Government’s Work Choices legislation. Expect a wry smile from the Howard Government, as parents and students are once again relegated behind union politics.

Union rhetoric that says conservatives want to trash public education does not match what’s happening in the real world. In Alberta, Canada, long derided as home to dumb rednecks riding high on the proceeds of oil and natural gas, there has been a dramatic turnaround in the inexorable decline in public education.

In Edmonton, the province’s capital, recently retired schools chief Angus McBeath says: “The litmus test is that the rich send their kids to public schools, not the private schools.” Just read that again. Rich folk are sending their children to public schools. Compare the exodus of Australian students from public to private schools, with parents often working two jobs to pay for private school fees.

What’s behind Alberta’s counter-intuitive trend, in which 80 per cent of parents express satisfaction with public education? Put it down to the dreaded conservatives, who have reigned since 1971, and their values. It’s simple stuff like reforming the curriculum to focus on core subjects such as maths, English and science, improving teacher training, setting real performance goals for students and tracking student performance in province-wide tests.

As The Economist recently pointed out, Alberta has spent the past three decades building one of the best education systems in the country. And it’s turning out clever students who rank higher than their Canadian peers.

In Australia, there appears to be a similar yearning for genuine accountability in education. Increasingly, parents are turning away from Labor as being best able to deliver on that front. It’s not an unreasonable response, given that reform is unlikely to come while the political bruvvers in the union movement rule in our schools.