The Balancing Act: Issues in the Funding of Public and Private Schools in Australia

摘要

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently examined the international evidence on intergenerational mobility and concluded that 'children largely inherit their parents' socio-economic status' (d'Addio 2007, p. 68). Those children growing up in social and economic disadvantage are much more likely to experience relative deprivation in adulthood, while advantaged children tend to become advantaged adults. Education is one of the principal mechanisms underlying this transfer ofsocioeconomic status across generations. Educational disparities tend to persist across generations (see d'Addio 2007 for a review). The world over, the children of highly educated parents tend to have more education—and better life chances—than theirpeers with poorly educated parents. These disparities have important consequences for economic and social well-being because education is intricately linked to both income inequality and intergenerational income mobility.