Whatever Shape The Government Takes It Has No Choice But To Prioritise School Spending – Or Count The Cost
If Justine Greening has any sense she will get a commitment from No 10 to make this issue a focal point of concern
- by Fiona Millar
The tumultuous general election campaign seems light years away already. And for all the passion, anger and talk of change it provoked, we have ended up with a government that looks strangely similar to the one that went before.
A lot has been written about what might happen next: a second election; a Labour victory; a Tory government struggling on for a while; a new Conservative leader with fresh ideas. Meanwhile, analysis of final polling figures suggests that the electorate is highly volatile, so anything is possible.
The implications for education
Given the lack of an overall majority and the pressures of essential Brexit legislation, the likelihood is that when it comes to education Mrs. May’s minority government will want to set out some key issues without getting involved in too many parliamentary tussles.
Pledges in the Conservative manifesto on further education, skills and training are not that contentious and may be essential if Brexit is to go ahead in a way that impacts on migration of skilled workers from elsewhere. There were also promises of which even I approve, such as a review of school admissions. Although this may only lead to a gentle probe into an area most governments prefer to ignore, it could open up the possibility of longer-term change. But other plans will surely be buried for now. New grammar schools requiring legislation are almost certainly out, for example. The minority government’s bedfellows, the passionately pro selection Democratic Unionist Party, might be supportive, but the plan probably wouldn’t survive a parliamentary vote, especially limited to English MPs on this devolved issue.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be new grammar schools at all though. One is about to open in September, in fully selective Kent, disguised as the ‘satellite’ of an existing one over nine miles away in the same county. Other nascent grammar school annexes exist around the country, including one in the Prime Minister’s own Maidenhead constituency. So networks of new selective schools could still pop up and, given the Kent precedent, without any realistic legal challenge. This in turn goes back to the previous Labour government’s failure to deal with the existing 164 grammars. While they are there they can still expand; that may be something for Jeremy Corbyn to consider as he ponders what manifesto changes he might make for a second election.
Funding is still the priority
However, the one issue that is going nowhere is school funding. Stories abound of Conservative Party candidates being taken to task about this on the doorstep, largely as a result of effective campaigning by school leaders, parents and teacher unions using social media to show voters exactly how much their local schools were going to lose.
The Prime Minister proved to have a tin ear on many issues, when in fact we now know people had reached a tipping point with austerity policies and wanted a more empathetic, listening government.
If Justine Greening, now reconfirmed for a second term as Education Secretary, has any sense she will get a commitment from No 10 to prioritise this issue and write to heads pretty damn quick reassuring them that their concerns, expressed through their parents in the ballot box, will be listened to.
Specifically she must commit to filling the £3 billion black hole in school budgets left by a flat cash government settlement combined with dramatically rising costs, and to ensuring that the final Fair Funding Formula leaves no losers.
Fail now, pay later
There are so many unknowns at the moment. No one really knows when and if another election will happen. A broad and inclusive approach to the Brexit negotiations might buy Theresa May more time and will hopefully kick into the long grass the sort of hard exit from the EU that could lay to waste any post austerity public spending plans.
But the stars must surely now be aligned now for school spending. If the cuts issue isn’t neutralised, it will continue to fester in voters’ minds. Sooner or later this administration will pay the price for that.
Fiona Millar is a columnist for The Guardian and a co-founder of the Local Schools Network; for more information, visit fionamillar.com or follow @schooltruth
