They would no longer embrace a cross-section of society. But it is in the national interest that the grounds for such choice should not be that the public system has been starved of funds. The Commonwealth declares it has a commitment to public education. The only increase the Commonwealth has given or plans to give to government schools is through grants to cover the increased average costs of all schools, both government and non-government. This does nothing to alter the status quo.
Education is the foundation of civil society.
Our pluralist, democratic and peaceful Australia has been built by the nation's teachers over successive generations. Public schools have been the basis of that process. They have been there for the children of the boss and the worker, the rich and the poor, the captains and the Kooris, the First Fleeters and the boat people, the able and the disabled, the Christian and the Muslim, in cities and the bush. Public schooling is of a profoundly different order from public transport and public housing which could, under given circumstances, all be provided by the private sector without detriment to the fabric of the nation. The same is not true of public schooling.