Education savings schemes appear sensible and responsible. But their quiet rise reflects a deeper failure – a loss of confidence in Australia’s commitment to properly fund public education as a shared civic good.

The email arrived quietly, as most do. A brochure promoting an education savings plan – sensible, well designed, and carefully worded. It made no grand claims, issued no manifesto, and offered no criticism of public schools. It simply invited parents to plan ahead, to be prudent, and to take responsibility for their children’s educational futures.

There was nothing alarming about it. In fact, that was precisely why it lingered.

After a lifetime working in public education, I still hold to its founding promise: that education is a shared civic commitment, not a private purchase. So when an education savings product lands in one’s inbox, it prompts a question worth asking gently rather than defensively: what does it say about the system we now inhabit when education is increasingly framed as something families must financially prepare for, rather than something society guarantees?

This is not an argument against saving, nor a criticism of families who do. It is an attempt to notice a shift – cultural rather than legislative – that has gathered momentum alongside years of unresolved school funding failure.

For much of the twentieth century, public education rested on an implicit social contract. Governments would provide a baseline of quality schooling, and families would trust that contract. Education was never equal in outcome, but it was equal in intent.

Education savings schemes quietly introduce a different logic. They suggest that educational outcomes are no........

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