Well, I’m being devil’s advocate to some extent but don’t the arguments being made against free school travel also apply to school education?
In a system that is starved of funds especially in lower socio-economic areas, wouldn’t it be fairer to impose a modest fee on well-off parents who send their kids to places like Mosman High and re-direct that money to places that need it a lot more?
If the era of free bus travel to school is coming to an end in NSW then perhaps the era when the well-off can get a free education for their kids should also come to an end? Just seems logical to me.
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What about specialist public schools? For instance ones that offer specialist music programs. Should students who go to those schools but don’t live in the high income areas be forced to pay higher fees? No.
Also, for what principled reason is public education free? It is because we believe it is a basic right that everyone should be entitled to a decent education. This means that there should a system of free education available to everyone that meets this decent educational standard.
Does this extend to free transport to school? I’m not so sure, but you might be able to argue that without it people in regional areas will have a more restricted access to education.
It’s interesting to consider that most states don’t have free transport for students. My original state of Western Australia certainly didn’t and the ACT only had it for a very short time.
These parents in, eg, Mosman are obviously supporting the public education system in the first place.
In the case that income-tested school fees were set up, would parents simply move to private schooling?