More (Basil) Fawlty Logic

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Education Minister, Peter Collier, says that "WA secondary schools currently have fewer students per teacher than any other State", as justification for cutting school teaching budgets.

Note there is no mention of what is the best average class size for educational outcomes, including the ability for schools to offer course options that are not mainstream.

Nor is there any mention of the extent to which this comparison is affected by WA's size and widespread population.

But the 'crowning glory' is the apparent assumption that the other States are 'right' and WA is 'wrong'.

Imagine if Victoria, for example, were to look to WA in the area of road safety and say WA's fatality rate is worse than ours, so we should cut funding for road safety initiatives.

No. Where we observe differences between states we should try to understand how these arise and, where appropriate, identify ways of improving our performance. What we should not do is use difference as an excuse for regressing to the lowest common denominator.