In the second of 2 articles on the myths behind the education debate, Anthony Ashbolt shoots down the 'hit list' theory behind Labor's lost election

Adam Rorris ponders the welcome problem of quickly spending $14.7 billion in schools

CPD fellow Eva Cox assesses the Rudd Government's performance on Indigenous issues, income support, child care and parental leave: Rudd has apologised to the Stolen Generation, signed Kyoto and fixed some of the worst conditions for asylum seekers. These actions seemed to suggest a serious change in political directions, but other signs show he is leading a government designed to avoid scaring off the Howard voters. This is worrying as the social agenda of the government could be defined as a more modern form of social conservativism, with some residual neo-liberal tendencies. It lacks the fire and imagination that would challenge some of the retrograde social assumptions that drove most of the last government’s policies.

Tony Moore offers suggestions for an education revolution beyond the boundaries of the private and public school systems.

Eva Cox takes the child care rebate for a spin and finds it wanting.

Labor's pledge to keeping pumping valuable education dollars into the Coalition's wasteful SES funding scheme is bad policy, writes Lyndsay Connors.

Why keep two technical training systems on the road when neither is worthy of a pink slip, asks Ben Eltham.

Many teachers - particularly in the public system - still assume that education is something that happens to children, rather than with them, argues Joanna Mendelssohn. But current federal government policy won't bring about the changes needed in our schools.

Sheldon Rothman unpacks the stats on equity in Australia's education system, and finds that to help disadvantaged young people catch up to other groups we need much greater investment in the schools they attend.

Howard’s claim to have increased public school funding by 70% over the last ten years might not be a lie – or even a damn lie – but it’s definitely a dodgy statistic, writes Lyndsay Connors.