[HedgeYourBets]

Well I can't speak about the quantitative aspect of it (more youths = more friction makes sense to me...) but qualitatively if you think Australian public education is any better than Britain's you're mistaken. I don't even think they have many field trips - they just don't teach anything. The situation was bad when I was in the system - and looking at my younger siblings now going through the system I think the situation has gotten even worse (mind you all this was under Howard). This transcends left and right - the problem is systemic. I honestly believe that the education system has degenerated to the point where, not only is it not beneficial, it is downright destructive. I don't care what the standardised tests say about the international performance of Australian schools, having gone through a "good" public school myself I know that I wasted six years learning what should have taken a quarter of the time.

And is it really surprising that this is the case? The entrance scores required to study teaching are so low that just about any idiot can become a teacher, social pressures push students towards mediocrity and laziness (being intelligent or hard-working is considered 'nerdy', no doubt you're familiar with tall poppy syndrome), and schools and parents alike fail to socialise (not merely educate) children to an acceptable standard of minimum civility. The result is a generation of arrogant, lazy, stupid, spoiled kids whose sole pursuit is to pleasure themselves without regard to the wellbeing of anyone or anything else.