The Stanhope Government have not only failed to learn from the school consolidation policy of the Alliance Government (“Schools approach was ill-considered”, Editorial, August 2), they have fallen well short. The earlier plan at least had extensive criteria which could be addressed. This Government has none outside of capacity figures, which they admit are wrong in many cases.
The fact that the “Government’s salesmanship of its education policy has so far been lackadaisical” is, in no small part, due to the lack of rigour in the proposal. It is tissue-thin. There are few reasons to defend it because there were few reasons behind it.
The Stanhope Government used aggressive PR tactics with distorted figures to try and capture the agenda. This has failed and demonstrated that they are not interested in the best possible outcome, merely their outcome. They have not dealt with the community in good faith.
At least the Alliance Government assigned Departmental officers to schools to assist them in making submissions. In contrast the Stanhope Government have forced parents of targeted schools to become educational experts and only belatedly released the figures which parents need to fight their case.
The campaign against the Towards 2020 proposal has been effective because it is badly flawed. They need to rip it up and start again.
Update: Published in the Canberra Times, 3rd July.
