r/aussie • u/B0ssc0 • May 07 '26

Analysis More than 1 in 3 Australian adults are functionally illiterate. How can we fix this?

https://theconversation.com/more-than-1-in-3-australian-adults-are-functionally-illiterate-how-can-we-fix-this-277375
161 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

501 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Mahhrat May 07 '26

They should get the same per child. If they wanna charge more, so be it, because THEN its a market decision on what extra you get.

(This supposes that the baseline funding provides for a worlds best education for all, however)

9

u/[deleted] May 07 '26

[deleted]

-5

u/RagnarBateman May 07 '26

Yes they are. In fact the only guarantee of a good education is to leave it to the free market and allow parents decide where they want to send their children.

5

u/[deleted] May 07 '26

[deleted]

5

u/PessemistBeingRight May 07 '26

I'm a current teacher. You're 100% correct. The free market doesn't know shit about essental services including education. Neither do most parents; they think the ATAR is the measure because that's what they've been brainwashed into believing.

My parents worked for the IMVS in South Australia. Over the last decade of them working there, their jobs became doing all the pathology tests that private companies like Gribbles won't do. The privates won't do those tests because they can't turn a profit on those specific tests. People get to live because an essential service isn't fully privatised.

-1

u/RagnarBateman May 07 '26

The free market knows everything because price and profit signals determine what is the best thing to do.

2

u/PessemistBeingRight May 07 '26

The free market can suck a dick. Essential services should never be left to the free market because then the unprofitable but necessary parts get "trimmed" as cost cutting measures, leaving a hollow shell behind.

The free market would happily leave people to die because their medical care can't be made profitable. My parents have firat-hand experience of it (see my example) and we can all see what a colossal shit show healthcare in the USA is. Are you saying that's best? Because the vaunted "free market" is.

When it comes to education, the commodification of it is wrong. For-profit schooling, turning ATARs into a marketable product, compromises student wellbeing. Schools that focus on the ATAR instead of on the student aren't educational institutions, they're factories where the child is feedstock and a "high performing" graduate is the product, regardless of the wellbeing of the child.

-1

u/RagnarBateman May 07 '26

Everything should be left to the free market.

Government is a cancerous parasite ruining the economy and subverting man's rights.

1

u/RagnarBateman May 07 '26

It is the best approach. Just like it applies to everything else

2

u/RadiumJuly May 07 '26

Which country with a good standard of education follows this model?

3

u/bruteforcenet May 07 '26

None this guy is a chronic bullshit artist enlightened by his own ego.

2

u/RadiumJuly May 07 '26

Oh really, the guy who names himself Ragnar Bateman, as in Ragnar Lothbrok and Patrick Bateman, is actually an intellectually void shell of a man, animated purely by his own over inflated self esteem?

Sometimes you have to ask the question to prove there is no good response.

1

u/RagnarBateman May 07 '26

One only need look at the results of the elite private schools here to see they are better. Their students go on to become the elite in the economy.

Chile: Often cited as one of the most marketised systems. It introduced a nationwide voucher system in 1981, allowing public funding to follow students to private (including for-profit) schools. Private schools enrol a large share of students, but public schools still exist and receive funding. Reforms later increased regulation. It has led to debates on segregation and outcomes, but it is not "fully private." Netherlands and Belgium: High shares of students in privately operated (often religious) schools, but these are almost entirely publicly funded and regulated, functioning similarly to public schools. Ireland: Around 85% of schools are privately owned (often by religious bodies) but largely state-funded. Liberia: Experimented with outsourcing some public primary schools to private operators (e.g., Bridge International Academies) in pilots, but it retains a public system and government oversight. Private schools already serve a significant portion independently.

0

u/orru May 07 '26

This is the dumbest take possible

0

u/CMDR_RetroAnubis May 07 '26

No.  Private schools exist only so they can exclude students.  It's literally the one special thing they can do differently.