Parent Power
Published in Policy Magazine , autumn 2005. Republished by Education Forum and Online Opinion . A footnoted version of this article is vailable on request. In December 2004, Andrew Refshauge was backed into a corner. In the light of the poor academic performance of indigenous students, he could no longer insist that the “one size fits all” approach to school curricula is the best model. Instead he proposed to relabel schools with high concentrations of aboriginal students as “community schools” and allow them to develop personalised study plans for individual students. He agreed that “Aboriginal parents [should now] have a say in selecting teachers and managing public schools”. He also broached the crucial issue of funding by acceding that “teachers may be paid based on their performance, rather than the union award”. This points to the broader question of who should choose what the best is for Australia’s children. Who is best qualified to choose the curriculum and the teaching m