ISV condemns gratuitous attack on Independent schools

‘We are witnessing an extraordinary and ill-advised campaign that seeks to pit one school
sector against another,’ ISV Chief Executive, Michelle Green, said.

‘This campaign is at odds with the long-standing cooperation and mutual respect that has
existed between non-government schools,’ she said.

‘We know that the heavy-handed tactics adopted by some Victorian representatives of
Catholic education are causing dismay among other Catholic education officials, school
leaders, teachers and parents.

‘In calling for some Independent schools to be stripped of all government funding, these
tactics amount to an attack on a fundamental principle of school funding that has endured for
more than half a century – that all students, regardless of school, should receive some level
of government funding,’ Ms Green said.

‘While the purported target of this campaign is the Federal Government’s method of allocating
funding, it involves a gratuitous and disingenuous attack on selected Independent schools.

‘It involves language that previously has only been heard from ideological critics who would
deny any government funding to all non-government schools – Catholic and Independent.’

Ms Green was commenting on a media release issued by the Catholic Education
Commission of Victoria, which questioned whether selected Independent schools should
receive government funding.