'White Flight' to Private Schools

The article “Data shows ‘white flight’ to private schools” discusses the incongruence between the make-up of schools and the suburbs in which they are located.  There is a growing disparity between public and private schools in Sydney. Private schools are overwhelming white, in contrast with the multicultural suburbs in which they are located, and public and selective schools are overwhelmingly multicultural, a mix that does not accurately represent the areas in which they were built.  Students today have not been exposed to other cultural backgrounds present in Australian society.  In order for multiculturalism to be successful in Australian society, its members must be competent in dealing with difference. Though schools may have an excellent curriculum, students are unable to receive a complete education without the experience of being confronted with people of different backgrounds.  This mismatch of the cultural backgrounds of student bodies and the cultural backgrounds of the suburbs in which they are found is a direct result of the federal government’s funding, which has disadvantaged public schools over private schools and thus creating ‘white flight’ to private schools.  If this issue of government funding is not addressed, students today may face social problems later in life, in that they will be unprepared to deal with difference in society.

With such diversity in today’s society, I think that it is very important for children to be exposed to people who are different; who are of different cultural backgrounds, who speak different languages, who have migrated from different countries. If they are not exposed to difference, not only will they not learn tolerance, but they will miss out on opportunities and friendships that they might have otherwise had.  With ‘white flight’ to private schools and a lack of diversity in the classroom, students may also adopt the thinking that white culture is the only culture or the right culture, thus enhancing the status and reputation of elite white schools.  If they adopt this thinking, they may become privileged and feel a sense of entitlement, and as if they have power of those of other cultures. “The white and middle-class flight from comprehensive public schools undermines the ability of these schools to serve as potential micropublics for young Australians; and given the comparatively low levels of cultural diversity at many private schools, these also fail to provide a promising setting for students to understand and negotiate cultural difference.  Closing off potential encounters with difference artificially restricts experiences, options and alternatives in the formation of one’s identity, and this is all the more acute for young people, whose identities are at a crucial stage of formation” (Ho 2011).  Schools in Sydney need to take action in creating a more diverse learning environment for students, beginning with providing proper funding for public schools.  If public schools are given a greater budget to work with, creating a more enriching and satisfactory learning environment will be achievable. Parents are driven to ‘go private’ because they view private schools as “more disciplined, values-based and better resourced than public schools” (Ho 2011). If parents felt as though their children could receive an education of the same quality at their local public schools, there would be a decrease in ‘white flight’ to private schools, thus creating greater diversity within Sydney’s school system. 

References

Creagh, S. (2011, May 4). Data shows ‘white flight’ to private schools. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/data-shows-white-flight-to-private-schools-979

Ho, C. (2011). Respecting the presence of others: School micropublics and

everyday multiculturalism. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 32(6), 603-619.

Vass, G. (2012). The racialised educational landscape in Australia: listening to the

whispering elephant. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1-26. doi:

10.1080/13613324.2012.674505