Two hundred and twenty million dollars would be an impressive chunk of change, even in the huge amount of dough carved out of the federal tax take for education.
Much less impressive however is Julia Gillard is wasting that much on a naked and sadly desperate bribe for the god-bothering lobby.
We’ve all read the words ''chronic'', ''underfunding'' and ''state school system'' placed one after the other so many times now that I hesitate to do so again, lest your eyes roll back in your heads, your brain functions flatline and you all start thinking of Wendy Francis as a reasonable choice for your upper house vote.