Kent Tory Education Policy in Tatters

Conservative plans to allow parents and charities to set up their own schools have been called into question by two senior Tory council figures.

Paul Carter, leader of Kent County Council, told BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme that funding parents to start their own "free schools" would threaten the budgets of other local schools. David Kirk, who is responsible for schools in Hampshire, also said local authorities were better placed to improve schools.

Mr Carter told the BBC that the policy could mean local authority schools getting less money and education services suffering. He said he was not against choice in education, but warned his party must guard against what he called "destructive" rather than "constructive" competition.

Mr Carter runs an authority with almost 600 schools, including grammars, academies and comprehensives. He believes the funding proposals on free schools would give him less to spend on existing schools and could have a detrimental effect on what services he could provide.
"At the moment the more academies and free schools you operate, under the current academy funding arrangements, the less maintained schools would get," he said.

"Secondary schools are around £4,000 plus per pupil. If 10%, 12%, 15% of that would be taken away from maintained schools and given to free schools and academies - local authorities still have statutory functions to perform. They have to arrange and organise school admissions, statements for special educational needs pupils - a whole range of services that need paying for. That can't be taken away from us and given to free schools or academies because they don't have the statutory duty to carry out these responsibilities," he said.

Lib Dems offer Pupil Premium

In contrast, the Liberal Democrats have set out radical plans to invest extra money in schools to give every child a fair chance.

We will invest an extra £2.5 billion in schools through a Pupil Premium that will raise funding for the poorest pupils to private school levels.

The money will be targeted at schools taking on children who need more help, but will benefit every child in every school. The cash can be used to cut class sizes and provide one-to-one tuition or catch-up classes, ensuring every child gets the individual attention they need.

An average primary school could cut class sizes to 20. An average secondary school could see classes of just 16.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said, “With the deficit as it is, everyone knows money is tight, but this is a question of priorities. We have identified in our manifesto £15 billion of savings, of which we will redirect just £5 billion to alternate spending. It is a measure of my personal commitment and passion for education that half of that money will go into our schools.

Our plans will raise the money spent on the million children from the poorest backgrounds to private school levels. “Headteachers will be able to use that money on a whole range of measures to help all pupils and all schools. Cutting class sizes, providing more one-to-one tuition and catch-up classes: whatever suits their school and their pupils’ needs best. With a simple, but profound ambition: to make sure every child gets the fair start in life they deserve.”