Rich Kid Poor Kid<\/a>, to be released next month.<\/p>\nIt is a scathing critique of Australia\u2019s longstanding support for private education and the notion of choice to the detriment of our public schools, where enrolments are at record lows.<\/p>\n
double quotation markPeople told me I was going to condemn [my kids] to a life of drug addiction and prostitution, which was absurdJane Caro<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s appalling that you can\u2019t just go to your local public school now and feel sure that you\u2019ll get an excellent education,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have schools in Australia that can\u2019t afford to buy cleaning products for their cleaners, and the teachers have to dip into their own pockets to buy it. This is outrageous on every level. It cannot be justified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caro says her lifelong passion for the public education system stemmed from her mother\u2019s strong views about schools being the \u201clitmus test\u201d of a society\u2019s civil values and cohesion.<\/p>\n
Her family moved to Australia from the UK when she was five, and Caro was educated entirely in public schools, first at Frenchs Forest public, then Chatswood public and Forest high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a really first-class public school education \u2026 And then I got a free university education,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I owe [back] for the education that I was lucky enough to get. I also feel that [a public education] was valuable, not just from the point of view of getting really good marks at university.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd frankly, I got perfectly ordinary marks. I\u2019ve always stuck true to the idea that Ps get degrees and fun is a valid part of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Public schools haven\u2019t failed. We, the public, have failed public schools,\u2019 Caro says. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Caro\u2019s two daughters were educated in the public system \u2013 albeit in the affluent suburb of Mosman where the public school offering is strong \u2013 and so was every member of her extended family.<\/p>\n
One of her daughters now works as a counsellor at a public school. Asked if her three, soon to be four, young grandchildren will follow in her family\u2019s footsteps, Caro replies drily: \u201cThey bloody better.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ask her if it was a difficult decision to opt for a public high school for her children. In her essay, Caro describes the anxiety of choice that parents face after their children\u2019s primary school years, one she says is primarily about buying status than accessing a better education.<\/p>\n
Was that something she also navigated?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d she replies briskly. \u201cI mean, first of all, look where I live. Leafy middle-class north shore Sydney \u2026 When I sent them to high school, yes, I underwent the usual abuse that you face when you\u2019re asked what schools you\u2019ve put your kids\u2019 names down for, and I said, \u2018None, I\u2019m not a fucking idiot.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I didn\u2019t say it quite like that, but people told me I was going to condemn them to a life of drug addiction and prostitution, which was absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Caro puts it, the reason people denigrate public schools is simple. \u201cIf you\u2019ve paid 5, 10, \u2026 45, $50,000 plus for something you can get for next to nothing down the road, you have to say what\u2019s down the road is absolute shit,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
double quotation markI spent a lot of time trying to control everything, keep everything safe, which didn\u2019t fit with my personalityJane Caro<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic schools haven\u2019t failed. We, the public, have failed public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current Labor government has enacted a deal with the states and territories to fully fund public schools according to the Schooling Resource Standard \u2013 but not until 2034, leaving a generation of students underfunded.<\/p>\n
At the same time, successive governments continue to provide funding to private schools regardless of the fees they charge families, a choice Caro says comes down to the Labor party drinking \u201cthe neoliberal Kool-Aid almost as enthusiastically as the Liberals\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is this idea of choice and merit \u2026 the free market can solve every problem,\u201d she says. \u201cAll that self-serving, privileged class horseshit. They drank it \u2026 And the problem for the Australian public school system is it has no champion in parliament apart from the Greens and they are not going to form a government anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caro, who will be 70 next year, delivers this speech while tackling the lower north shore\u2019s many hills and winding staircases with the stamina of a 25-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo shortage of hills in Sydney,\u201d Caro comments. \u201cWhich is why walking is an excellent exercise. It keeps you fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
We share a terrible sense of direction, and so stick to the stable path of the Flat Rock Gully creek, popping out at the historic Cammeray Bridge.<\/p>\n
It is here we plan to meet Guardian Australia\u2019s photographer, but instead decide to stop for a coffee and hide from the heat.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s split-second decisions such as this that Caro compares to how she has approached her long career. \u201cI never have a plan,\u201d she says. \u201cI just say yes to interesting offers and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her early days in advertising, Caro says she was one of just a handful of women in the industry, who were constantly teased and dismissed by the men.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe level of insecurity and fragility, I felt embarrassed for them frankly,\u201d she reflects.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m glad really because now if somebody tries to put me down or abuse me on Twitter, I just say, \u2018I spent 35 years in advertising creative departments. I\u2019ve been bullied by the wittiest men in Australia.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, she says, she enjoyed her advertising career. \u201cIt also enabled me to live a nice, comfortable life, which has enabled me to concentrate on the things I really want to do,\u201d she says, and that word comes up again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a gift and a privilege. A huge privilege, another one. I\u2019m just overwhelmed with privilege, I can tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t all been easy. Caro suffered from crippling anxiety from the age of 21, which she says she now does not experience at all thanks to extensive therapy and coming face to face with any parent\u2019s greatest fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took real danger when my first daughter almost died to chase fantasy-danger out of my head,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
When Caro\u2019s baby, who had been born five weeks premature, was just 13 days old, she contracted RSV-positive bronchiolitis, a severe viral chest infection that caused her to temporarily stop breathing three times in one night.<\/p>\n
She was given the last neonatal intensive care bed in New South Wales at the time, and an intensive care doctor and grief counsellor gave her powerful advice that has remained with her since: \u201c\u2018There\u2019s nothing special about you. There\u2019s nothing special about my daughter. Terrible things can happen. They can happen to anyone. Safety is an illusion. Danger is reality.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m just overwhelmed with privilege, I can tell you,\u2019 says Caro, who approaches stairs with the stamina of a 25-year-old. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent a lot of time trying to control everything, keep everything safe, which didn\u2019t fit with my personality,\u201d she says. \u201cNow I often joke, I\u2019m so not anxious that some people may think I\u2019ve overcorrected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her child made a full recovery \u2013 and now Caro can\u2019t remember the last time she felt nervous.<\/p>\n
En route to the cafe, we pass the playing fields of the Anglican boys\u2019 school Shore \u2013 one of those $45,000-plus a year schools. It\u2019s complete with five full-sized ovals, tennis courts, pavilions and dressing rooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolute temple of privilege,\u201d Caro mutters.<\/p>\n
The conversation turns back, of course, to social justice and equality of opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t talk about excellence. You can\u2019t talk about merit. You can\u2019t talk about any of those things if the playing field is rigged. And it\u2019s rigged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rich Kid Poor Kid <\/a>by Jane Caro is out on 5 May through Australia Institute Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jane Caro is happy to call herself privileged. She does so only minutes after inviting me into her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-599155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}