Tabling truth on schools

League table opponents argue we should not compare schools in poor, rural or outer suburban Australia with those in affluent areas. It would "demean those children and teachers", we are told.

What demeans those children and diminishes us as a nation is the belief that postcode consigns them to a life of mediocrity from which the only escape is scholarship to a city private school.

Accepting as truth that schools in poorer areas will necessarily under-perform compared to those in my Sydney north shore community is an indictment on all of us.

Asserting that parents can go online for information and compare like schools on the basis of resources and socioeconomic profile ignores the plight of many parents and their children.

For dysfunctional households, educationally, technologically and economically poor, the only way many will find out what's going on at school will be electronic coverage of a published league table.

The truth in educational performance and comparison may hurt some teachers and government. Failure to face and publish it hurts a lot more, its victims being the children who continue to attend schools under-performing in the cone of silence.

If we who profess to lead believe poorer kids will never learn as well as those born into more fortunate circumstances, what hope have they of escape from a life of impoverished existential despair and unfulfilled potential?

Had league tables been published last year, Kevin Rudd would now be throwing billions of dollars at teacher training, accreditation, performance pay and teaching conditions in our poorest performing schools instead of the botched, borrowed largesse for buildings in many schools already burgeoning with resources.

In the "battle of the trucks", perhaps we could have a social justice truck hauling league tables through the nation. That would be an eye-opener.