The burden of lifting up the disadvantaged is not evenly spread

The recent political and public fallout of the school rezoning issues concerning Adelaide and Botanic high schools speak to a wider issue gripping public schools across Australia.

A segregated landscape of advantage and disadvantage, most apparent in public high schools, has emerged via changing enrolment patterns across the past 10 years.

Public schooling is at a tipping point — made so by a history of inequitable federal funding, a politically inspired doctrine of schooling competition, more standardised bureaucratic regulation, and the consequent fallout felt by many public schools serving those hit by economic downturn and geographical isolation.