Weekend Wrap for 18 June 2023

The Age Editorial: Euthanasia law review must consider the thorny issue of dementia.
"...a particularly challenging issue for state Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas when she undertakes the review into the laws will be the push by some activists to allow dementia patients to be able to access them. Nowhere in Australia is this yet the case, and it’s rare globally, but reporting in The Age has shown the strong desire for this among many in the community. Others oppose the idea. It’s no niche issue. Dementia accounts for almost 10 per cent of all deaths in Australia and is the second leading cause of death after coronary heart disease. If you’re a woman aged 75 or more, it’s the thing you’ll most likely die of. Any expansion of the law, however, would be complex and controversial. At the heart of voluntary assisted dying laws must always be the word “voluntary”, and, as people lose their cognitive capacity, it’s difficult at the end to verify ongoing consent." (13 Jun 2023)
Read more at The Age

Maeve McGregor: The school funding wars are over: rich people won and the country lost.
"For at least 20 years, the bonds of citizenship and basic fairness written into our social contract have cracked under the weight of a series of attacks disguised as benign policy changes. Though rarely cited, chief among them is the way in which successive governments have allowed the civic mission of public education to be debased not only by the onward march of neoliberalism, but by the wealthy’s almost preternatural sense of entitlement. Unspooled from notions of the public good, the common thread which runs through the arid funding landscape for public schools finds itself anchored to ideas of competition and unfettered parental “choice”. Underpinning this shift in approach lies a logic which holds out the promise, or illusion, that the more the education sector can be refashioned in the mould of a marketplace, the greater the chances that excellence will triumph. Yet as any objective autopsy of the nation’s schools shows, what’s instead manifested is one of the most segregated education systems in the Western world, and one defined by impenetrable barriers of class, privilege and wealth." (13 Jun 2023)
Read more at Crikey ($)

Anthony Haneveer: Editorial - Schools must be supportive of gender diverse students.
"The obvious is the idea that there is something wrong with supporting - and that is the right word, supporting, not encouraging - children who are gender diverse. It is perverse to give the impression that one cares about kids while arguing that those students should not be accepted and instead have their identity denied. This is only made worse when you consider that it is coming from someone who claims to be representing gay, lesbian and bisexual Tasmanians." (14 Jun 2023)
Read more at The Advocate

Michael Schiffer: The type of school does matter when it comes to a child’s academic performance.
"Secondary private schools receive 80-90% of the government funding public schools receive. They should enrol a similar percentage of the disadvantaged students that nearby public schools enrol. Government regulation of enrolment and exclusion procedures should also remove discrimination against poverty, religion, disability, gender, and sexuality. Some of the highest performing education systems in the world are also the most equitable. No education system has achieved excellence for all students by separating them by family backgrounds. Australia’s schooling system requires substantial structural reforms if it is going to lift the achievement of disadvantaged students." (15 Jun 2023)
Read more at The Conversation

Raihan Ismail: The federal government’s ban of the Islamic State flag risks outlawing the very Islamic symbols the terrorist group has co-opted.
"The federal government this week introduced into the Parliament new legislation to outlaw the public display of 'prohibited symbols'. ... In seeking to ban the Islamic State flag, the government has unwittingly landed on a good example of the dangers of outlawing symbols based on religion, culture or history. The Islamic State terrorist group deliberately designed its flag to co-opt long-existing Islamic symbology. ... This is where the government’s legislation trespasses into gravely dangerous territory. The legislation does not stop at the Islamic State flag itself. It also seeks to ban the display of 'something that so nearly resembles' the Islamic State flag 'that it is likely to be confused with, or mistaken for' the flag. What this means is that the legislation risks outlawing the very Islamic symbols that the Islamic State has co-opted. That co-optation has been to the dismay of the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Australia and beyond." (16 Jun 2023)
Read more at ABC Religion & Ethics