Underhand attacks on master bastions

It is not news that Brendan Nelson is a twerp, and a heartless one at that. But check out his response to the marvellous ALP needs based funding policy for schools, released yesterday:

The Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, accused Labor of persecuting parents who had worked hard and made sacrifices for their children. "As a consequence of Mr Latham's announcement today there are children who will be forced to be removed from the schools which they love and which love them."

Well, I don’t think that’s too big a sacrifice to make for disabled kids in public schools to get some more appropriate funding. Pretty much every parent works hard and makes sacrifices for their kids. They still are unlikely to be able to afford the $9,956 charged by the Woodleigh School in South Frankston, the cheapest of the “Group of 67” schools. (The most expensive is Ascham School in Edgecliff, at $17,142.)

No, the kind of people we're talking about are the kind of people written about in this article:

Pay your money and take your chances. That's the deal for newcomers wanting to enrol in some of Sydney's top private schools, writes Kelly Burke.

Shore can already name its entire junior high class of 2016. It is made up of students yet to take their first steps in the world and delight their parents with the words "dadda" and "ta".

Still making the transition from infancy to toddlerhood, these boys have yet to give their parents many clues as to who they might become: timid or extroverted, quick-witted or a plodder, carefree or anxious.

There is only one certaintly at this early stage. The friendships most of these toddlers will forge
as teenagers - the young men alongside whom they will battle on the rugby field and in the examination room - have already been determined.

If for no other reason, this policy is worth it to see what will spew forth when Miranda Devine starts frothing at the mouth over it.