Parents reveal concerns

NEARLY half of all parents regret their choice of school for their child.

A major report by the Centre for Independent Studies to be released today has found 40 per cent of parents would not choose the same school again, or were unsure if they would.

“This suggests that around 1.6 million students are enrolled in a school that their parents aren’t happy with,” report author Glenn Fahey said.

“It is a pretty alarming finding … parents aren’t happy with where their kids are,” Mr Fahey said.

“If it was a restaurant and two in five people wouldn’t come back or wouldn’t endorse it, that restaurant would be shut down.”

The report also found the Government needed to relax public school zoning restrictions to give parents more choice.

Research also reveals 88 per cent of parents think public schools get enough money. But nearly half aren’t happy with how it is used.

Only 14 per cent of parents want money spent on hiring extra teachers, while 29 per cent of parents want to boost infrastructure and facilities.

“School spending decisions could be more devolved and transparent, as a way to increase parental confidence in their school’s use of resources, particularly for government schools,” the report said.

Mr Fahey said it showed there needed to be a major rethink of endless union calls for more money.

“Parents are saying, ‘I got to my school and I am not happy with the facilities I see there’,” he said.

“What we hear from unions is that we need more teachers, we need more ever smaller classes … we need an army of support staff and teachers need better pay because they’re underpaid and it is clearly it is not what parents are asking for.”