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The federal government is out to buy votes. Quickly.
Education is a hot topic. After years of being ignored, education is suddenly -- so it seems -- a vote winner. Will the government offer money to schools in order to get better education for our children? No way!
Give money to schools -- or to teacher training -- and where does it go? To schools and to teacher training. How many votes in that? Well... how many people will be directly affected?
Give money to schools and all it does is to improve the standard of education. The response will be, "At last!" And that response will only be from people with a specific interest in education.
Give money to improve teacher training? The same lack of impact -- but even slower, because it takes a while for better-trained teachers to have an impact. (If they can even have any impact at all, against the built-in deterrents to educational improvement.)
How can we buy most votes with the least money? Give it directly to the voting parents!
Better yet: (1) Tell the voting parents that the parents will get money, (2) delay the handout till next year, (3) make the parents beg for their money.
The government is promising that -- if re-elected -- it will pay for school uniforms:
- "You will get money for school uniforms." How much more personal can the vote buying be? Every time that this particular pork barrel is pushed, the individual voter will be affected. So much more personal than buying votes with money to a school.
- When will you get the money? Not yet! Pay with your vote now and you get your money much later. If we get elected. If we care to remember this "promise".
- How will you get your money? Beg for it! Contact the government, fill in forms, prove all sorts of things. This has two effects: (a) Every time you fill in a form you are reminded of the government's "generosity"; (b) Most people will fail in the form-filling, so the actual cost will be reduced.
By the way: what is the actual cost of a school uniform?
If you're careful, your children wear the uniform only at school and you pass a uniform down through the family... you can keep the cost down. If your school has a "uniform exchange" system -- outgrown uniforms are available for cheap sale to other parents -- you can save even more. Schools with a standard grey-on-grey uniform reduce the cost even further.
If you send your children to a private school, with a unique uniform, your costs will be higher. If you throw out a uniform because it is faded, outgrown, last-year's style, your costs will be higher.
The more you spend on uniforms, the more you stand to gain from the government's vote buying handout. Waste more, win more.
What benefits will all this have on education?
None whatsoever.
Agamedes Consulting. Support for your thought: email nick leth at gmail dot com |
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