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Exclusive Brethren schools
Exclusive Brethren schools receive more that $10 million per year in federal government funding alone, despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd describing the sect as 'an extremist cult'.
Both state and federal governments are ignoring Kevin Rudd’s trenchant criticism of the Exclusive Brethren sect and continue to deliver massive subsidies to their schools that are closed to all children other than those from families within the cult, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.
In August last year Mr Rudd described the Exclusive Brethren as ‘an extremist cult and sect’. He went on to say that ‘there are real problems with the provision of modern education for kids under their system’.
Exclusive Brethren schools around Australia are set to receive more than $10.1 million in federal funding this year. Subsidies from the Rees government to their NSW schools will exceed $1.8 million.
The Rudd government is snookered by the contradiction between its criticism of the massive amount of money going to schools run by the Exclusive Brethren sect and its promise to not change the Howard government's subsidies formula.
Funding of the Brethren schools is growing at a massive rate. Our analysis shows that from $7.4 million in 2005, it is on track to blow out to $10.1 million in 2008. Over the next four year funding period from 2009 to 2013, we expect total funding to exceed $50 million.
The NSW government is also in deep denial over its continued funding of the sect’s schools, which has grown by more than 87% in real terms over the last four years.
Sooner or later someone in government has to have the honesty to say that there is something deeply wrong with public funding of schools that refuse to enrol children who are not members of the sect.
Public money is being poured into schools that are closed and secretive.
NSW Education Minister Verity Firth and her Federal counterpart Julia Gillard are ignoring the well-found criticisms levelled at the school by their own leader. It is time they got their heads out of the sand and put an end to the funding of sects.
Federal funding of these schools has grown dramatically in recent years, as shown in the following graph:
This is broken down into funding to the following schools:
|
School Name |
Location |
State |
Total Funding 2005 |
Estimated Total Funding 2006 |
Estimated Total Funding 2007 |
Estimated Total Funding 2008 |
|
Glenvale School |
Glenroy |
VIC |
1,967,428 |
2,341,883 |
2,551,645 |
2,761,698 |
|
Oakwood School |
Glenorchy |
TAS |
564,960 |
547,100 |
597,235 |
653,362 |
|
Woodthorpe Drive Secondary School |
Willetton |
WA |
671,158 |
759,114 |
826,809 |
904,494 |
|
Agnew School |
Norman Park |
QLD |
890,460 |
871,420 |
954,450 |
1,048,022 |
|
Melrose Park School |
St Marys |
SA |
238,089 |
340,765 |
364,573 |
393,873 |
|
M.E.T. School |
Meadowbank |
NSW |
3,087,150 |
3,815,213 |
4,071,551 |
4,345,500 |
|
Total |
|
|
7,419,245 |
8,675,495 |
9,366,262 |
10,106,948 |
