Tag Archives: education

Independent schools right to be worried about GST broadening – parents already fee sensitive

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ), which represents non-Catholic private schools, released an excellent discussion paper earlier this week prepared by Mikayla Novak on the impacts of broadening the GST to include education. The paper notes that, if GST were applied to … Continue reading →

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MOOCs a game changer for universities – UQ lecture by Roly Sussex OAM

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Gene Tunny

Our very own University of Queensland is a world leader in MOOCs. (Image attribution: By James Dover (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons) Last Thursday night, at the University of Queensland’s Customs House in Brisbane, Emeritus Professor … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Boys under-performing at Queensland State Schools

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A new ABS study on educational outcomes at Queensland State Schools confirms the importance of socio-economic factors in school performance, and also reveals a surprisingly large gap in NAPLAN performance between boys and girls (see chart below I’ve copied and … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Productivity Commission has scope to consider student visa rorts

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Gene Tunny

One of my loyal readers often says to me that “Australians love a good rort”, and indeed there are several government policies and programs that allow rorting to various degrees. So I’m pleased that the fiercely independent Productivity Commission is … Continue reading →

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GST hike appears very likely, but Commonwealth retreat less so

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has, it seems, given the green light for raising more revenue via the GST in a speech at Tenterfield on Saturday (Sir Henry Parkes Commemorative Dinner): …the Commonwealth could stop funding programmes in areas of state … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Upcoming Economic Society event on rural & remote service delivery

Posted on October 19, 2014 by Gene Tunny

With a relatively high proportion of the population living outside of major cities and towns, in outer regional or remote areas (see chart above based on ABS data), Queensland faces an additional challenge in delivering government services such as health … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Health, Population, Queensland Government | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Huge disparity in qualification levels across regions, even in SEQ – e.g. Bris West vs Ipswich & Logan

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A new ABS publication, Perspectives on Regional Australia:  Changes in Regional Educational Attainment, reveals huge differences in the percentage of people aged 20-64 with post-school qualifications (Certificate III and above) across Australian regions (see map below based on 2011 Census … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Education | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Catholic schools still benefiting from very favourable funding deal from Howard Govt days

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Gene Tunny

I’ve received several interesting comments on my post Large savings for Qld Govt from shift to private schooling, including the comment below from a representative of independent schools (i.e. non-Catholic private schools such as BBC, Somerville House and the grammar schools): … Continue reading →

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Trends in private school enrolments – big change in primary school enrolments

Posted on March 26, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A significant trend in education in recent decades has been the strong growth in private school enrolments as many parents have become convinced private schools offer a better and safer school environment. Queensland Treasury’s information brief on the new ABS Schools … Continue reading →

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Weekend reading – 15-16 March

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The Productivity Commission’s monster of a report on Public Infrastructure, which (rightly) recommends congestion pricing on roads, is worth reading, particularly because of the excellent Chapter 14 in Volume 2 on Social and Economic Regulation. On the costs to business … Continue reading →

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