FRFI 217 October/November 2010

The ConDem government will enforce cutbacks in public spending of between 10% and 15% to the education budget. As part of this offensive, a new Education Bill was steam-rollered through Parliament by Education Secretary Michael Gove, using emergency powers, within weeks of the new government’s election. Every school in England received a letter inviting it to apply for Academy status, containing a ‘ready reckoner’ to work out how much extra cash it could receive if it took up the offer. The ground was prepared for the attack on working-class education.

The Labour government opened the door

Labour established 203 Academies, mostly in prestigious new buildings in poor areas where they stand in stark contrast to Local Education Authority (LEA) ‘maintained’ schools. Labour indulged in these flagship projects and the rhetoric of parental choice both to keep middle-class voters on board and to show a business-friendly face. Initially, a contribution of £2m guaranteed private sponsors control of schools – including land, buildings, governance, staff hiring and the teaching curriculum. Shortly after, schools were literally given away, to be run by the private sector but paid for by central government. Today sponsors of Academies include religious organisations, businesses, universities, banks and charities. Future plans include a Murdoch News International Academy at Wapping.

Extending the scheme

The new Department of Education now offers Academy status to every school in England, including selective grammar schools and independent (ie private) primary and secondary schools. Academy status will be the financial saviour of many smaller private schools that have lost fee-paying pupils during this recession and will now be saved from closure by central government grants. The ConDem Education Bill also provides for fast-track applications to set up ‘free schools’ to be run by parents, teachers or indeed any group that wishes to apply for a licence and money from Michael Gove. This year an Evangelical Christian school for 15 pupils has opened in the London Borough of Camden with around £800,000 from central government.

Gove’s battle plan

Ed Balls, the previous Labour Education Secretary, jeers that only 32 schools have opted for Academy status and that only 16 ‘free school’ proposals have been licensed for this September. This is not the point. Gove has seized upon Labour’s privatising initiatives for compelling political reasons. The success story for the ConDems is that the new Bill is in place and the unity of the state education system has been further wrecked. As the cuts bite, school leaders will be tempted to break ranks with the LEA and become academies or ‘free schools’ for the sake of the extra cash on offer from Whitehall. Gove is no visionary looking to a future of free and flexible education. He will give extra cash to new Academies and ‘free schools’ but massively cut overall. He is weakening future opposition ahead of the battle over resources with teaching unions, local government, parents and pupils.

Local Education Authorities

By 1987 Thatcher’s hostility to local government was focused on local education authorities, and they were largely stripped of responsibility for school budgets. Labour applauded this as a step towards a more ‘entrepreneurial’ spirit in schools, despite the damage it caused to any democratically-elected element, as well as specialist professionals. The school medical service was among the victims of this change. Nevertheless the provision of many local services remains the responsibility of the LEA. These include sports facilities, school dinner services and teachers who provide extra input for children with English as an additional language (EAL) and those with special educational needs (SEN). LEAs are, above all, under an obligation to provide school places

for all local children.

Independent schools, Academies and ‘free’ schools are only responsible to themselves. Unlike LEA maintained schools, they are not accountable to the local community and their legal and financial situation is not in the public domain. They receive extra budget because they have no recourse to the LEA, but are dependent instead on the continued involvement of interest groups and the approval of the Education Secretary.

Ofsted puts in the boot

The privatised inspectorate Ofsted has just reported that half of children receiving help with special educational needs are misdiagnosed. It argues that most of these pupils would benefit from good teaching and care, rather than specialist help. They accuse schools of exaggerating the numbers of pupils requiring additional teaching to increase income. It is true that children identified as SEN and EAL do increase school finances to fund extra teaching support and help moderate school league table results. Ofsted’s criticism, however, is part of an attack on LEAs and their pivotal role in providing extra support. Good educational provision for the 1.7 million children currently categorised as SEN is a fine goal. It is a cost that this government will not pay.

An extra 100,000 places needed

100,000 more places are needed at primary and secondary schools to end an explosion of overcrowding. Currently over 10% of pupils are in schools where overcrowding is high. London councils estimate that at the start of this academic year, more than 5,000 4- to 5-year-olds were without a reception class place or being educated in temporary classrooms.

So where’s the good news?

There is a rising fear that smashing up the state system will lead to chaos and bankruptcy, for it is a truth universally (but secretly) acknowledged that a locally-run state system of education is the most efficient and fair use of resources. A recent National Audit Office report says of the new education bill: ‘The expansion of the programme will increase the scale of risks to value for money, particularly around financial sustainability, governance and management capacity.’ The good news lies in the fightback. Let’s make some good news.

Susan Davidson