STATE schools are failing indigenous kids, operating like prep schools for lives on welfare or in prison, indigenous leader Noel Pearson says.
Mr Pearson yesterday condemned the ability of Queensland public schools to educate disadvantaged children, in a scathing speech directed at misguided, leftist, “compassionistas”, who he says stifle opportunities for indigenous Australians through a prison of low expectations.
Renewing his attack on the ABC, and extending his criticism to left-leaning progressives more broadly, Mr Pearson said indigenous Australians were at risk of dying “in the arms of the false progressives whom we mistakenly think are on our side”.
The indigenous leader attacked left-wing bigots – who “believe themselves compassionate, sensitive respectful, empathetic and morally correct” – for serving up a “poisoned pill” of low expectations to indigenous Australians, and railing against ideas such as welfare reform and the development of traditional lands.
He said unlike state education systems that blame bad results on socio-economic disadvantage, his US-based Direct Instruction curriculum operated on the principle that it was the fault of the teacher and teaching if the student failed to learn.
“Normal state schools are routinely failing Aboriginal children,” Mr Pearson said.
“They are preparatory schools for too many indigenous youth moving on to lives of welfare dependency and economic exclusion, and worse, juvenile detention and adult imprisonment.”
The Department of Education is negotiating with Mr Pearson to run his two remaining Cape York Aboriginal Australia Academy schools at Coen and Hope Vale, after he ceded control of the Aurukun school.
An auditor’s report into the finances of the Aurukun school, which was commissioned after the school was temporarily shut down, is due to be finalised this month.
Mr Pearson also lashed out at ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie for suggesting journalist Stan Grant was evidence of its indigenous employment and inclusive programming policies.
He said there was no evidence of neutrality about the ABC’s culture, accusing it of holding a clear position on asylum seekers, coal mining, climate change, and same-sex marriage.