Australia's schools are underfunded, undervalued and, yes, unequal.

Extract from The Guardian website: 

Minister Christopher Pyne refuses to believe there's an equity issue in schools across the country Tell that to teachers who have to pay for classroom items out of their own pockets

by Jane Caro 

theguardian.com Wednesday 27 November 2013 14.27 AEST

In proud, egalitarian Australia, our lowest performing students are as many as eight years behind our highest performing students. Yet education minister Christopher Pyne says we do not have an equity problem in Australia’s education system.
Australia is the kick-arse economy of the western world, sailing through the global financial crisis while enjoying one of the lowest debt ratios. We remain triple AAA rated. We are also the third lowest funders of public education in the OECD, yet Pyne says this doesn’t matter – because we do not have an equity problem.
 In Victoria between 2003 and 2011, the percentage of high VCE scores in schools servicing the most disadvantaged students has fallen by a catastrophic 21.2%. Yet Pyne says we do not have an equity problem.
A few years ago, a deputy principal told me about a 13 year old who was hit by a car outside his public high school in a disadvantaged area in Sydney. He was rushed to intensive care. It turned out the boy was seriously short-sighted, and one of five siblings with the same condition. His mother had the prescriptions in her purse, but could not afford glasses for all five children, so none of them were able to learn properly. The school later discovered that the mother was not able to afford the food in the hospital canteen while staying by his bedside, and as such was not eating. To help, they had a gold coin donation day. For the first time ever, they raised a few hundred dollars, which was an achievement. Schools that must fundraise among poor families are generally not very successful, as the families they service have so little to spare. Yet Pyne says we do not have an equity problem in Australia.
Public schools report dipping into their own slender budgets, and sometimes principal’s own pockets to pay family electricity bills so that students can keep access to their computer and also get the occasional warm meal. Public schools in disadvantaged communities often must find a refuge for families who flee domestic violence or are made homeless. But there is no equity problem in schools in Australia, according to Pyne.
There are students in public schools who must juggle their school commitments with a job, because theirs is the only income in the family. Why public schools, predominantly? Because if you are poor you can’t afford school fees – that’s why fees are sorting mechanisms. Yet Pyne can’t see any equity problems.
Public school teachers in NSW can pay up to $5,000 out of their own pockets for classroom items because the school budgets simply do not cover the costs. These items can include pens, exercise books, whiteboard pens, paper – you name it. I know of one public school that discovered the cleaners (even lower paid than the teachers) were having to buy cleaning products out of their own pockets because the school’s budget had run out. The teachers chipped in and bought the cleaning products themselves. It is also routine for teachers to pay for students to attend excursions and sports carnivals and camps so they will not be left out. But, according to the minister with responsibility for education, there is no equity problem in Australia.
A young teacher I know was surprised to find a boy in her bottom Year 9 English class who had a subtle and brilliant mind. The verbal answers he gave in class revealed a sophisticated conceptual ability. She asked her colleagues in the English staffroom (as they drank the tea and biscuits they pay for themselves) why such a bright boy was in her low ability class. “He’s smart, alright,” another teacher told her, “But he comes from such a chaotic background that he never knows where he will sleep that night, or where his next meal is coming from. He can hardly read or write, he puts all his wits into just surviving from day to day.” But ... you guessed it, there is no equity problem.
Researcher Barbara Preston says that in 1996, there were 13 low income kids to every 10 higher income kids in our public secondary schools. By 2006 this ratio had increased to 16 low income kids to every 10 higher income kids. No doubt that ratio is even greater now.
We are increasingly dividing our children through our school system, creating ghettos of privilege and under-privilege. Some schools – mostly public schools - are struggling with increasing concentrations of the hardest and most expensive to teach kids (such as the ones described above) on public funding that government’s ever more grudgingly give them. Other schools – mostly fee-charging – enjoy concentrations of much easier students to teach in publicly subsidised luxury.
In my view such extremes of wealth and poverty are not good for any of our children, but minister Pyne tells me they do not indicate an equity problem in Australian education.