Almost alone in Australia, New South Wales has been expanding its number of selective schools, accompanied each time by arguments about the need to increase choice and cater for the gifted and talented. And each time we are left with one less school for local students, together with an ongoing trail of collateral damage to other schools and overall student achievement.

The Department of Education, successive governments and even peak education groups have long ignored the downsides of selective schools – until now. The NSW education minister now wants to open the doors of these schools to solve a student accommodation problem.

Year 6 students from Hurstville Public School who sat the Selective Schools test in 2017. Credit:James Brickwood

It's a real problem. In some parts of inner Sydney, families have no local comprehensive public high school, only extremely competitive selective schools, including Sydney Girls and Boys and the Conservatorium High School. Other public high schools are full, exacerbated by some being partially selective, including Newtown High School of Performing Arts (entry by audition) and Alexandria Park Community School. School choice has become illusory for many inner Sydney families wanting to access local public education.

The difficulties created by stand-alone selective schools don't end there. Education Minister Rob Stokes has unfurled a range of other reasons why we should rethink the idea of selective schools, including the need to avoid creating "a rigid, separated public education system".