Class Wars

How Australians fund schooling has been a matter of bitter political, social and religious division for almost two hundred years. And it remains so. The 2012 Gonski Review, urging all jurisdictions to move towards consensus on a needs-based and socially just education system, has continued to encounter forms of political obstruction. By examining the principles, the motives and the means of those who, since Menzies, have fought to develop and maintain a class-based education system at the expense of a broader view of social justice, this book explains how and why Australian education policy remains mired in political controversy.

“Here at last is a clear, comprehensive and compelling account of the decisions that have embedded the inequality of school funding. -- Stuart Macintyre, Emeritus Laureate Professor, University of Melbourne”

Here at last is a clear, comprehensive and compelling account of the decisions that have embedded the inequality of school funding.

-- Stuart Macintyre

If you’ve ever wondered how Australian school funding landed in such a mess, you’ll find the answer in this lively and meticulous account of political opportunism, ideological zeal and policy commitment.

-- Frank Bongiorno

Tony Taylor is Adjunct Professor at the Australian Centre for Public History, University of Technology, Sydney, and at Federation University. For half a century he has worked as an educator in schools and universities in the United Kingdom and Australia, teaching, researching and publishing in the fields of educational politics, policy and history.

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