The Middle Class and the Government High School: Private Interests and Public Institutions in Australian Education in the Late Twentieth Century, With Reference to the Case of Sydney (1)‪.‬

After the Depression and World War II there was considerable pressure in Australia, as in other democracies, not only to improve the lot of citizens through economic and social reform, but to improve the relationship between the state and its citizens. The frustrations of the Depression in which Australian governments, state and federal, had generally adhered or been forced to adhere to orthodox economic policies, were contrasted with the experience of the war. The power of the state to organise multiple aspects of economic and social life in order to win the war created a favorable climate for new state interventions. (2) Improved access to secondary education for all was one way of satisfying some of the new expectations. For the Australian middle class the emergence of reliable and accessible government high schools with clear pathways to well paid white collar work and through the universities, teachers colleges and later, colleges of advanced education, into the professions, was very welcome. The Australian middle class across the twentieth century was increasingly dependent on the credentials that schools could deliver for young people.