Gee Whiz. Are you giving me an opportunity to state what has been the bloomin' obvious? Thank you and by the way, love the show too Ken.
A. Stop importing. EVERYONE! Yes there are some methodist kiddies that need assistance, not entire townships. Stop it now. Same goes for affluent North shore/Central Coast/Illawarra kids. They are not too bad off at their respective private schools guys.
B. try spending this money on our own backyard first. Aboriginal, Single parent, disadvantaged whatever, but how about getting our own shit together? Heaven knows there just might be a couple of kids that could make a difference not only on the footy fields but in our future lives.
C. If you do freight some one in on a scholarship, don't deny it!!! It really shits me on this about how "my school" doesn't do it and everyone else does, andwhen I see one person stand and pontificate about others when that school offered a position to my son. Declare it or stop it!
D. To be continued. I knew l shouldn't have logged on to play Aussie town trivia. Shit.
Like your comments. It is my belief that schools and any official old boys union should disclose all scholarships they hand out, and who holds them in their annual reports. It is good governance and shows who and what is being subsidies by full fee paying parents or old boys membership fees and what benefit to wider society is being gained.
However the 'patrons' of recently 'attracted' rugby talent I believe would fall outside of this. It's something that will never be openly disclosed as these are private individuals who are spending their own money how they want to.
I have no doubt that these private individuals are known to their school community.
What will bring change is when full fee paying parents exert pressure by say things have gone too far, there is too much emphasis on rugby not enough support in other areas etc
I agree with you that what really rubs me up the wrong way is those in denial. Newington are not the first to do it, and if they stop 'attracting' rugby talent the issue will not magically go away for the GPS as some people believe.
I don't use the word scholarship as some people try to claim the moral high ground around the technical definitions of scholarship. Support can come in many forms and avoid scrutiny, a bit like tax evasion.