Sensational
Only the Herald Sun could take something which isn’t actually an issue — the existence of fee paying places in our premier state schools — and use it to peddle what seems to be some kind of racist agenda on their front page.
Because, not for the first time, foreigners are taking things from us. They’ve always taken our jobs, but now they are taking our kid’s spot in a good state school.
I’ve been told from an extremely reliable souce that fee-paying spots aren’t at the expense of free ones, making the whole article pointless — but that isn’t the issue I want to talk about.1
It’s the Herald Sun’s ridiculous emphasis on the fact most of these places are held be foreigners. This may be true, but it’s also completely irrelevant. Surely the only issue should be that there are fee paying places, not who has decided to buy them. The fact that foreigners have is completely coincidental and barely worth mentioning, let alone in a massive sub heading on the front page of the paper. Although in defence of the journalist who wrote it, they don’t actually get to decide the titles.
In any case, in a society which seems largely xenophobic and always on the search for a scape-goat, it seems wrong and irresponsible of one of our major papers to promote those kinds of attitudes.
People don’t need to be pushed much I find.
- Although we can go into it if you’d like. ↩
penny
June 19th, 2005 at 3:14 am
The real scandal is that most universities have been scandalously under funded for the last decade or so. Universities have had the education funding gutted out for other projects but the right wing government under a decade of John Howard. Universities have had the choice of offering places to international students- to make up the chronic shortfall of funding by the government.
Universities are now offering Mc Degrees- where people from more affluent countries such as main land China, East Asia, and to a lesser degree other parts of the world. They came after hocking them selves to the eye balls in debt to study highly sort after degrees such as engineering and commerce which in their home country costs even more and places are even more highly sort after. Your average Asian student owes thousands of dollars just like every one else. To appease some public concern for Australian Domestic students, the HECS fees administration was set up promising that if you really wanted to go to university you could get a loan and pay through the nose just like every one else.
Where every one looses is Universities dumb down their studies and can’t afford things like humanities and political comment. It’s Mac Degrees to those that can afford it and the narrow minded approch to research and learning is the real problem down the track.
Sorry people for my rant but I agree News Paper coverage is BIASED and places like here are the only true free press.
Tom
June 19th, 2005 at 5:41 am
I’d love a Mac Degree.
East Asia is more affluent than Australia? Seriously? But your point is taken. The previous generations get through with free tertiary education, and then once they get put in charge, decide that it wasn’t worth it, and us lot will have to damn well pay. Everywhere I look in Uni there seems to be cost-cutting. Tutorials are obviously more beneficial to a student than a lecture, but they slowly disappear while lectures are increased, simply because you have to pay more people for tutorials.
Back on the topic of high schools though, it’s a strange situation to have government schools offering paid positions. It’s not like we have a shortage of schools to pay to enter. But then, it’s just about money again, I suppose. Education gets less and less important every day. After all, what good are clever people? I don’t trust them.
Andy
June 19th, 2005 at 7:39 am
I’m outraged by these foreigners. I’m also outraged by food additives, dodgy builders, credit card interest rates, fine print, ordinary hard-working tax-paying fair dinkum true blue mum-and-dad aussie Australians being cheated out of their hard earned money.
I’m also outraged by the twisting of truth, perversion of justice and people losing the way.
And foreigners stole my baby. And my the food out of my children’s mouths. And things. I’m outraged by things. And uh … stuff. Stuff and things. So, how about that local sports team and those outrageous umpiring decisions.