Repackaging old perspectives
By Nick Soudakoff
At last week's ALP national conference in Hobart, Mark Latham, shadow minister for education and youth affairs, outlined Labor's education policy for the next federal election.
Latham said Labor was committed to expanding the education sector as it was crucial to capitalist society: "Whereas nations once relied on machine power to generate new industries and jobs [read profits], they must now harness the brainpower of their people ... Governments can only succeed in the global chase for capital by investing in education and training."
There were a number of policies proposed that many in the education sector would support, such as increased funding for pre-schools, reversing the Liberals' funding cuts to secondary education and "strengthening" student income.
However, Labor won't be reversing the direction it took under the previous Hawke and Keating governments. Latham advocated a "third way" between the "failings of the current system and the inequities of so-called student centred funding".
This "third way" is more or less the same as the Liberals'. Latham said: "Our education policies will be designed not only to create opportunity but also demand responsibility." Sound familiar? This was the justification for the introduction of HECS.
The speech clearly stated that Labor's plan does not "advocate more money for more programs of the old kind, especially in education". "Learning has become far too important to fund failure, or support institutions that fall short of our expectations for success ... If we are to take seriously the creation of a learning society then we must also accept the inevitability of reform among each of the institutions of lifelong learning."
Latham added: "We need to provide closer links between universities and TAFE and to the needs of the regional labour market." He seemed to outline different policies for each area of the education sector. While, on one hand, student-centred funding was ruled out for universities, he proposed learning accounts, which is student-centred funding, for the TAFE sector.
Labor has the same perspectives as the Liberals — the key task of government is to develop the economy and Australian capitalists' international competitiveness. However, the ALP tries not to alienate its base in the student and union bureaucracies. The familiar tricks of Labor in the late 1980s and early '90s are proposed — give with one hand and take with the other.
What is clear from Latham's speech is that Labor will continue the project of restructuring education to be more suited to business needs, and that students will be asked to pay for the costs of its expansion.