I don’t care what mechanism is used, the fact is that we have an incredibly efficient public school system, but it’s struggling under the weight of its current demand with its current funding level. If our public schools are not funded to the point that they don’t know what to do with their existing funds, private schools should not be seeing one cent of that money.
You're still focusing on the schools and not the kids. $x per year per kid. If over a third of the student population is in private education, redirecting that money to public schools and then bringing those hundreds of thousands of kids to public schools is not going to solve anything. I happen to agree with you, I am happy with public school education, which is why I participate in it. I only disagree on the point where a kid going to a private school is not entitled to their funding.
Where’s my cut of that money?
Presumably, you've already benefited from 13+ years of government funding into your education. Education is an investment into the next generation of the population.
Where’s my cut of the roads budget because I choose to cycle or take the train? Where’s my cut of welfare?
Unless you are riding to work through open bushland, I assume you're using roads and paths that the government at some level has built. The same goes for the train: The government has funded building that train line. As for welfare, think of that as insurance. You pay into a fund that will be available to you in an emergency. If you hit that wall, you'll be happy welfare is there for you. Health falls into this category, also.
If private schools think they don’t have enough money to run privately, then they could start by trying to run a bit more efficiently. Cut executive bonuses. Build facilities that meet the needs of students, not the wants of their marketing departments. Heck, maybe don’t have as much of a marketing department.
I still believe a private school with 2,000 students is due to receive ($x times 2000) in government funding. You haven't convinced me that any kid in this country is not entitled to that support from the government. If parents want to fund executive bonuses, swimming pools and whatever else above that, that's their right.
You’ll forgive me if a temper tantrum thrown by an offshoot of the world’s largest paedophile protection racket does not convince me that we should fund them.
Don't get hung up on the example in Golburn being Catholic education. The sombre findings of the Royal Commission into child abuse 6 years ago brought home that that abuse happened everywhere. Public schools, private schools, scout groups, orphanages, churches (of every flavour), sports teams. Anywhere adults were entrusted to the wellbeing of kids. Just a look at the headlines in the last day or so will show you a convicted paedophile from Sunshine Coast was working as a lifeguard with kids unsupervised in the UK, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses covering up reported child abuse even after the royal commission changes.