Our chief executive on why the case for public schools has never been clearer, or more urgent. This piece first appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.

An extract

Two thirds of Australian children are educated in public schools. That single number should end most of the arguments we keep having, and yet it never does.

The debate is usually framed as a choice between systems. It is not. It is a question about what we owe the majority of our own children, and whether we are prepared to pay for it.

Every year the Foundation reads thousands of applications. They are not written by people asking for a handout. They are written by fifteen year olds explaining, with more grace than the situation deserves, why the cost of a uniform is about to end their education.