Hi Johnno, not all Catholic kids get to miss out as I would venture stacks of Catholic kids and maybe even a majority of them actually attend State schools because for a start they may not be be able to afford to send them to private Catholic schools. While I appreciate that some low income Catholic parents do opt to sacrifice and send their kids to a Catholic school, not all do. In terms of the many elite Catholic and other denominational schools it’s usually a higher proportion of the more well off that send their children to those schools. There will always be some exceptions.
In any event it does not surprise me that the govt would seek to phase in the introduction firstly in govt schools on a trial basis because after all public schools are 100% the responsibility of the govt and anyone who chooses to do so have a right to attend those schools. Also imo in priority terms the public schools in low income areas are probably the ones that have the greatest need for the service. So the govt proposal is to roll out the service over a number of years and dependent on it’s success will extend it to low fee Catholic and other independent schools.
Imo parents that would sacrifice to send their kids to a fee paying school would likely also go out of their way to ensure their kids dental health is looked after and would avail themselves of the already free services that exist.
it’s probably best to roll out the mobile service firstly in areas of more likely deprivation and to expand that from their. Logistically it’s apparently not possible to roll it out to everyone in one go so therefore the govt needs a process of prioritisation which is what I understand is happening.
