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Tell Us Your Views on "Independent Local Schools"

By 23 January, Campbell Newman had announced one major education policy for the LNP in the lead up to the state election.

The prospect of school boards, comprising the principal plus members of the community, taking over governance of “independent local schools” is not explicitly contained in the policy document, but has been mentioned by Campbell Newman in media interviews.

Since the LNP did not consult education professionals on the impact of the independent local school proposal, the QTU is asking members’ views on how they think such a policy might affect them, and Queensland’s state school system generally

MEMBERS - CLICK HERE - Tell us YOUR VIEWS

Features of the LNP policy

The “Independent public schools” policy, modelled on the system in Western Australia, was created with no consultation with, or input from, the QTU and contains very little detail, other than:

30 schools per year to enter the program each year for four years on an opt-in basis
schools in the program to operate under one-line budgets to cover all expenses
responsibility for “staff recruitment, financial management, governance and accountability” to be devolved to principals and “local communities”
schools in the program to receive $50,000 start up funding and “will be eligible for up to $50,000 a year to assist in any added administrative costs”
claims the program will not affect the transfer system, but no detail given on how these could happen in practice
based on LNP position that “our children are missing out on the foundation of a good education and Queensland’s literacy and numeracy results are ranked last or near last of all states across all year levels” and on an LNP belief that “Principals have lacked the ability to enforce high behaviour standards. As a result parents are voting with their feet and a record proportion of our children now attend non-government schools”.