The rise and rise of the aspirational class
If you listed John Howard’s political virtues they would have to include political savvy. Political savvy (or, more disparagingly, guile, cunning, wiliness or chicanery) is a peculiar virtue indeed. On advice from sixteenth-century political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli no longer do politicians defend The Good or higher ideals and virtues like justice. Now, the best we can hope for is a political leader whose primary aim is defending the state — and not just defending the state, but defending it by whatever means possible. Once our Prime Minister is charged with this task, emotive language, appeals to self-interest and lying become praiseworthy. Defending the state by any means possible implies retaining power by any means possible. Hence, political savvy becomes a virtue.
Howard’s ability to tap into the desires of what he defined as the aspirational class was an instance of his political savvy at work. But the aspirational class was more than a rhetorical category. An Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report released yesterday shows that when the children of the nineties became the students of the noughties their parents enrolled them in private schools.
In 2009 there were approximately 3.5 million primary and secondary students enrolled in Australian schools. According to the ABS that is 230,300 more than were enrolled in 1999. Of these 230,300 students 89% enrolled at non-government schools while only 11% enrolled at government schools.
Now, The figures in the ABS report don’t quite add up. The report states:
There were around 3,484,700 students in 2009, an increase of 230,300 students since 1999 … Students enrolled in government schools accounted for 11% (26,200) of the increase in full-time student numbers, while students in non-government schools accounted for 89% (208,500) of the increase since 1999…
And as far as I can tell 26,200 plus 208,500 adds up to 234,700, not 230,300; but whichever figure is correct, if the number of students enrolling in non-government schools is growing at anywhere near a rate of eight times the number enrolling in government schools then Howard’s appeals to an aspirational class were more than mere rhetoric.
Howard understood that the new generation of parents — the mums and dads having babies in the nineties — wanted what was best for their children, just like those parents who came before. The difference was, however, that the new mums and dads of the nineties were raising children in an affluent era. They had the aspirations, but they also had the means.
You would have to be misanthropic to resent parents for wanting what’s best for their children. This is why appealing to the aspirational class proved so successful for Howard. Parents generally want what is best for their children. He simply used this admirable desire to pursue his own neo-liberal dream of universal privatisation. Politically, it worked. But did the aspirational class exist prior to Howard’s prime ministership, or did he bring this class into reality?
In the last decade the number of schools in Australia decreased from 9,587 to 9,529. While this looks like only 58 schools closed, what in fact happened was 165 government schools closed while four new Catholic schools and 103 independent schools opened. One cannot infer from the figures whether closing government schools led to more children attending non-government schools or whether the marked increase of enrolments in non-government schools led to the closure of government schools. This is not an exclusive disjunction; there could have been a little of both. And considering that schools are controlled by the states, Howard may be in the clear (Kennett, not so in the clear).
But what can we conclude? What’s beyond doubt is that more children are going to non-government schools now than were a decade ago. I have certainly noticed an increasing number of young parents wanting to send their children to private schools. Howard detected their aspirations; his political antennae again served him well. But Howard’s time has passed. What will be interesting in the coming years is whether the number of non-government school enrolments as a percentage of all school enrolments continues to rise as appeals to an aspirational class disappear from political debate. My guess is that it will.
Category: Commentary, In Brief | Tags: aspirational class, education, Howard, private schools, public schools 2 comments »
January 18th, 2011 at 9:49 am
Hey, my name is Ellen and I am a student at St Mary Senior High School locate in St Mary’s, NSW. At school I am currently undertaking a course called society and culture. With in this course we are required to complete a personal interest project where we pick a topic to research. To complete this we are required to complete methodologies which allow us to gain information about the topic being studied in order to hand in a final report which we have completed based on our chosen topic.
for my topic i have chosen to look at the power and status associated with gaining a degree and not, to see whether society gives some one higher status become they have a tertiary level of education. with in this im also looking at this new aspirational class to see what their role is. And to see whether they are an influencing factor in way society may give more power to degreed people. so i was wondering if you knew any good articles or books which may be able to help me??
any comments who be very helpful!
thanks for your time
January 18th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Hi Ellen,
For a philosophical look at the aspirational class, read Alain de Botton’s book Status Anxiety. De Botton made a documentary on the same topic as the book. It’s available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CERfoDIU2Yw.
There’s also quite a bit of research on the link between people’s level of education and how much money they earn later in life. The idea is that status is linked to your level of income. And if your level of education determines your level of income, then the higher the level of education you have the more status you’ll have.
Here’s a link to a Treasury article on the link between education and income. See, particularly, the section entitled ‘How income is transmitted across generations’. There the report states:
Here’s a link to a study on the same topic based on US census data: http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p23-210.pdf
You should note, however, that since the mining boom people in trades – truck drivers, plumbers, builders, etc – have begun to earn much more. As a result, the link between level of education and income is not as strong as it once might have been.
All the best,
Dylan Nickelson.