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1. Angelo Gavrielatos is a closet Marxist-Leninist. His agenda is to abolish all non-government schools and create a state-school monopoly in which young people are indoctrinated into the socialist-secular-sexual revolution. Like all classical socilaists/fascists, he is all about curtailing religious freedoms and subject us all to the tyranny of the state ala Stalin/Mao/Hitler/Castro/Mugabe/Chavez, etc.

   Posted By: Robert Haddad

2. Time for a quick refresher of facts in order to understand the matters current.
   
   First Catholic School established by layman George Morley in Parramatta, in 1820. George applied for permission because the Catholic Church was still under interdict in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and the Colonies, a situation which would not end for a further ten years or so. The NSW Colonial Government paid for the teacher, as it did in every school – either religious or private because, at that time, there was no system of public (Government schools). Parents and or sponsoring organisations provided the place for schooling and employed the teacher.
   
   1880 saw the NSW Colonial Government’s Public Schools Act, establishing free, secular education for all children between six and twelve, allowing for forty minutes weekly, of confessional (denominational) religious instruction – to be provided at the expense of the particular religious group, as well as supplying the personnel to do so. All funding measures to religious and other private schools were withdrawn. The provision of free and secular education as well as that of the provision for the forty minutes of religious instruction have been enshrined in the NSW State Constitution. And so has, incidentally, daily time for a Bible reading and the praying of the Lord's Prayer in every Public School
   
   The response of the Catholic Bishops to the NSW Public Schools Act was to set up a parallel system of education, financed by the Church. This decision was largely responsible for a large number of Catholic religious Orders pledging to send to the Australian colonies, members who would staff the Catholic Schools.
   
   Any history of Australia will pay due honour to the Church for what it achieved, without any access to the tax monies paid by Catholic parents to both State and Commonwealth authorities for eighty-four years, apart from some tax concessions for educational expenses. As well as paying their taxes, some of which went to paying for Public Schools, these Catholic parents, along with the sacrifices of the thousands of religious Sisters, Brothers and Priests and the generosity of other Catholics and a not unsubstantial number of non-Catholic supporters, built and ran schools that educated Australians who built up the nation and even died for the nation in the various wars that it has been involved in.
   
   1964 saw the Commonwealth Government break the drought of justice in education funding and allow Catholic parents access – although limited, to tax monies to assist Catholic Education. Science laboratories would attract funding, an indication of both, the need for all secondary students to be adequately schooled and also that all schools working to a curriculum that supports the nation’s needs deserved funding.
   
   1968 saw the first legal challenge to the Commonwealth Government providing some funds for non-Government schools. An organisation, DOGS – Defence of Government Schools asked the High Court of Australia to rule against such funding on the grounds that it negated the Constitution of the Commonwealth stipulation that Australia would not have any Established Church to provide its religion. The case, after many years of legal argument amidst many public campaigns and even becoming an issue at various State and Commonwealth elections, failed in the late 1970’s.
   
   However, what has never been decided, by the Parliaments or the High Court, is whether parents are entitled to justice in the matters of funding for the schools they choose to send their children to. Whether that could ever be done within the understanding of the word ‘justice’ is a matter for much more debate. But, the foundation has been fully prepared by both the history of parents and Church in being committed to Catholic Schools and in the public debates which have been behind the political decisions to offer funding to Catholic and other non-Government schools.
   
   
   

   Posted By: Fr Mick Mac Andrew, Bombala NSW

3. As a product of "public" schooling for most of my years as an inmate of the "education" system I can only remember a lot of bullying and racism not the idyll of the "multicultural" myth Mr Gavrielatos is spinning.
   Oh wait -- my bad: he never actually said that public schools did either "bonding" or "bridging", did he? He just said that faith-based ones did the bonding ... hmm.

   Posted By: jonah

4. Mr. Gavrielatos's comments only show his ignorance of the whole matter. It also panders to those in the left-wing AEU that think if we closed independent schools tomorrow, all the worries with funding would be solved.

   Posted By: Peter Kleist

5. Mr Gavrielatos lumps all "faith schools" together. this is a mistake. On the whole Catholic schools are fairly inclusive. But on the other hand the exclusive Protestant private schools are very elitist, and the fundamentalist Christian schools, while not socially elitist, are exclusive in religious terms. Speaking as a passionate Catholic and a passionate state school teacher (as well as a union member), I would like to see closer links between Catholic schools and State schools, because whatever the differences, both types of schools are inclusive, and rank highly in social justice terms. On these grounds I would disagree with the views of Angelo Gavrielatos. Union leaders like him forget that many state school teachers are practising Catholics (apart from other Christians). At the same time I find the comments by Robert Haddad very extreme and absurd. Robert has to appreciate, that public education is the norm in all western democratic countries.
   
   Peter Burger

   Posted By: Peter Burger

6. Thank you Fr.Mick for the "refresher course". 30yrs ago,I was teaching at a Catholic School and had a unit on the history of Catholic Education with a yr,9 class. Being new to Australia,I had to read up as well as I could in order to teach it. I was so impressed with the hard work and the difficulties of the lay and religious people of those early years The fact that the students themselves remarked how lucky they were to be the inheritors of that struggle! That,for me,was "the icing on the cake"!

   Posted By: M.M.

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