Howard starved TAFEs worse than unis: Productivity Commission

Government spending on universities and schools barely kept pace with inflation in the latter years of the Howard government. But spending on public VET went backwards.

Universities might have cried poor during the Howard years. But they did a hell of a lot better than VET, according to the Productivity Commission's 15th 'Report on government services'. The enormous report card on the full range of government services - including health, justice, emergency management, community services and housing - was released late last month. The second chapter, dealing with education and training in the years up to 2008, shows that real government expenditure on university education rose by $675 million in 2007-08 dollars - a 4.9 per cent increase - over the last four...