Jesus Christ I thought America was the worst at everything among first world countries but I just found out about school fees in Australia and I'm so mad.
Public school means private school in most of the commonwealth
Don't ask
Hellish what the fuck.
Apparently its spent mostly on "supplies" (which parents just buy directly here which I guess isn't better) and uniforms (lol uniforms in a public school).
If you go to a government run school (what yanks call public school i guess) it's free
And i'm 99% sure uniforms are the norm everywhere but yankeeland
I'm so confused. Are there areas where there are no government schools available? Are privately run schools the norm?
Not that i'm aware of
What you call public schools are usually called state schools or government schools in the commonwealth
What you call private schools are usually called public schools
In a state school, you usually buy pens, calculator, that kind of shit, plus a uniform ( normally a button up shirt or a polo and a blazer or a sweater with the school logo on it with slacks and shoes, plus a PE kit which is usually a plain t-shirt and shorts with trainers)
Disclaimer: this is based on england, but i have been told by aussie friends that it's basically the same over there
In Australia, private schools are schools which are owned by companies/religions and require fees. Public schools are schools run by the government and are free, however conservative governments regularly cut funding to these schools.
I forgot to add another thing, which I'm curious if this happens overseas like in the UK. If a public school is performing well, they usually turn into "selective schools" where they require an application process to be allowed to attend since more parents want to send their kids to the school. The application process will usually involve aptitude tests, interviews, and other crap you'd have to do to get a job.
I have been out of the school system for a very long time so this is second hand, but from what i've heard, the new(ish) system does kinda do this, where the good schools get turned into "academies" which afaik can have entry requirements
They didn't 15 years ago when i was in school, it's something that got brought in about 6 years ago i think
OK that is REALLY confusing because public and private are literally opposites in how i understand the words. Its "public" if its owned by the state its "private" if its run by a... well... idk how else to use this word so "private" entity like a corporation or a nonprofit.
like thats the entire point of the word "privatized" right?
Iirc, it's because they are run by "members of the public"actual reason is belowYes it is ridiculous and makes no sense
A public school was traditionally defined as one that had open enrollment for any student that could pay regardless of religion or guild affiliation or locality.
I don't THINK my family ever had to pay a fee for registration but yeah I agree that having to pay for supplies is basically a fee just unoffiically.
I can almost guarantee Aussies are shelling out way less than in the shit districts in Yank-land. Registration fees, class fees, test fees, graduation fees, any kind of extra-curricular and any advanced classes everything is fucking money. Some of those get waived but not all & it's not fucking fine even if you're only theoretically charging those who can afford it (and they definitely aren't)
this post dredged up some real vintage anger; glad to see I'm still pissed about school even though I'm out
Either my mom hid this shit from me or I was more blessed than I thought, probably the later. Only thing I remember costing money was field trips. Oh and there was a home ec project in my middle school we had to pay for and I threw a big autistic fit about it until the agreed to let me have it for free lmao.
it definitely depends where you're at in the states, but to be clear my district wasn't even "bad". high-ranked in the state & country if you judge by like test scores and stuff, physically safe & mostly "good neighborhoods". yet everything was old, cost money, tons of empty classrooms, poor students get fucked over, & god help you if you had any special needs. god help you if you tried to be a teacher, like every fresh teacher burned out in a year or less lmao
slowly realizing my answer to all those radicalization threads
Maybe New England schools are better off or something (or at least Massachusetts and New Hampshire ones?). Not that there still aren't massive problems with the state of public ed, but my school experience was largely not to bad besides bullying issues. Some teachers were better than others, but none stick out to me as horrible and I have no memories of experiencing teacher-based ableism, which you think I would right? Maybe I just don't remember it or didn't process certain teacher behaviors as that though.
Worst thing I experienced besides bullying was when my mom put me in a Montessori charter school and they didn't have a special ed program and had to try to build it from scratch around just me. That went poorly, besides Montessori did NOT work for me in the slightest, I just goofed off all day lmao. I was back in regular public school before the end of that year.
