ABSTRACT
One of the main areas we identified was an accelerating pattern in Australia and internationally of the dismantling of public education systems as part of a long-standing trend towards the modernisation, marketisation and privatisation of educational provision. There were signs in 2014 that Australia might be moving down its US and English counterparts’ path. State conservative governments in Western Australia and subsequently Queensland had announced the formation of Independent Public Schools. Policy-makers, particularly in Western contexts, widely accept that the private sector is preferable to the public in many aspects of policy and governance, including the provision of education. School choice has become one particular mantra of reforming schools to be more ‘business like’. From a social justice perspective, the admission and selection policies of schools within an un-public education system lay the foundation for inequities. This is more than just a division of schooling purposes along public and private lines.
