David Miliband – 2004 Comments on Conservative Plans for Education

The comments made by David Miliband, the then Schools Minister, on 28 June 2004.

The Tories are committed to an agenda of cuts, privatisation that would lead to lower standards in schools.

The basic principle of Tory education policy is to cut money from state schools to subsidise private education. Their plans would take at least £1 billion out of schools to set up a bureaucratic voucher scheme and subsidise private education.

The Tories are making no commitment to raising standards in schools and they have even admitted that they would be ‘proud’ to see standards fall under a Conservative Government.

It is also clear that Tories continue to be at complete sixes and sevens on their plans. They cannot agree by how much taxpayers will subsidise private education. They cannot agree on the deadweight cost of their plans. They cannot say what the value of their voucher is. And they cannot say whether the voucher will be worth more for poorer families, more for children with learning difficulties, or more in areas like London, where schools’ costs are higher.

To add to the confusion, the Tories are now saying they would abolish admission procedures, leaving heads with the task of making up selection procedures. By abolishing catchment area rules every parent who wants to send their child to their local school faces a lottery, not knowing on what basis their child will be admitted. At the same time, heads and local education authorities will have to invent criteria to make their decisions, causing chaos across the system.

Whilst Labour’s programme of investment and reform is raising standards across the board, the Tory agenda of cuts and privatisation would lead to lower standards in our schools.