The Australian Private School Experience

After two days of focus groups with parents, teachers and administrators at Australian Montessori schools, Peter Davidson and I find many issues in common with similar schools in North America and elsewhere.  Recruiting qualified teachers, meeting or managing parental expectations, moving toward greater financial sustainability, and retaining students tops the list here and elsewhere.

One important difference is that Aussie private schools receive government support based on the income demographics of their families.  To us, this makes Australian private education a real life field experiment in the pros and cons of private schools accepting state support; something worthy of study by schools elsewhere before blindly supporting voucher or similar schemes.  While our work here sheds no light on whether the pros outweigh the cons or vice versa, the case studies exist from which to draw parallels to other places.  Smart associations of schools looking to be ahead of the curve with evidence rather than hypotheses should pay attention.