Well Blow Me Down

It is not often that I agree with Alexander Downer, but on the issue of removing funding for small primary schools in communities close to Adelaide, I strongly agree. He was on with Matt and Dave this morning on the ABC Morning Programme. He made the point that religions used to be a strong focal point for these communities, and now that people don't go to church in the same numbers, the local schools have an important role in small communities. I agree with him when he says that the State Government is trying to close these schools, without stating that this is there objective. It is interesting that Alexander Downer, the Foreign Secretary and Julie Bishop, the Commonwealth Education Secretary went to two of the schools affected by this policy. Look for some fierce lobbying. He did concede that it was the State Governments responsibility.


I grew up in a small country community in Scotland and recognise the value that the schools had for that community. I mean why would you live there if you couldn't send your young kids to a local school. Certainly when we were older, we had almost an hour of commuting to go to high school, but I think that communities should have local primary schools.

Many of the Adelaide Hills Schools affected are in parts of South Australia, where the roads are very windy and dangerous. The thought of kids making twenty kilometre trips to larger Primary Schools does not sound safe. This in a State only reluctantly committed to installing seat belts in school buses. How about the added carbon emissions. I thought we were trying to be the environmentally friendly state. More obfuscation from the somewhat extremely cocky Rann administration and their Department of Miseducation Lackies.