{"id":4825,"date":"2017-05-29T13:33:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T11:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4825"},"modified":"2017-05-29T13:38:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T11:38:37","slug":"on-those-school-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/4825\/","title":{"rendered":"On those school cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some outfit campaigning against cuts to expenditure on schools has found its way onto my Facebook feed. Let’s take a look<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Government has cut school funding by \u00a32.8 billion since 2015. Between now and 2022, it wants to cut \u00a38.9 billion more. Head teachers are already speaking of the impossible job they have to balance the books and offer the best education for all children. Yet there is worse to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you or I are told we must take a pay cut, it means we get a pay cut and take home less money. But when an organisation made up wholly of teachers’ unions claim school funding has been cut, what they mean is<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Recent research on the subject has shown that day-to-day or current spending per pupil in England was largely frozen in real terms between 2010 and 2011 and 2015 and 2016.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words, there have been no cuts as any normal person would understand them.<\/p>\n

As she hit the campaign trail, Theresa May repeated a claim she has made several times before, including during Prime Minister\u2019s Questions in April, that education spending is at its highest ever level.<\/p>\n

…
\nA Department of Education blog on school funding also details how high\u00a0school funding is\u00a0\u201cat its highest on record at more than \u00a340 billion in 2016 to 2017 and is set to rise to \u00a342 billion in 2019 to 2020, with increasing pupil numbers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So is it true?<\/p>\n

When Theresa May made the claim, she was talking specifically about education in England, and she is referring to the \u201cdedicated schools grant\u201d. This is the whole block of money going to schools in England every year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When Theresa May was talking about overall expenditure on education she was talking about overall expenditure on education. Boo! Theresa May, boo!<\/em><\/p>\n

But while the \u00a340 billion number is about accurate and it is true that this is higher than in previous years, it is not the whole story.
\nThis is because in terms of education spending, it is the \u201cper pupil expenditure\u201d \u2013 literally the amount spent on each pupil \u2013 that is relevant and not the total amount of the \u201cdedicated schools grant\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where to begin? Firstly, the overall expenditure is an important figure; even if per-pupil expenditure is important, that does not negate the importance of the overall expenditure level. Secondly, if the overall expenditure is at a record high but the per-pupil amount is unsatisfactory, that can only mean we have seen pupil numbers increase rather dramatically. Was there a sudden spike in births a few years back? Or is there another reason? The rent-seekers running this website don’t say.<\/p>\n

And don’t forget that we were told:<\/p>\n

Recent research on the subject has shown that day-to-day or current spending per pupil in England was largely frozen in real terms between 2010 and 2011 and 2015 and 2016.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So overall expenditure is at a record high, and per-pupil funding is holding firm. What’s the issue, again?<\/p>\n

Moreover, from 2015 to 2016 onwards school spending has been frozen in cash terms, which is likely to translate into a real terms reduction of around 6.5% between\u00a02010-11 and 2019-20.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I assume they’re talking about inflation. If this is the basis for the hysteria over savage cuts to the school budget, they’re in for a long campaign.<\/p>\n

This would be the biggest real-term fall in school spending per pupil for 30 years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Wikipedia would say: citation needed.<\/p>\n

The outlook for spending per student in further education (age 16-18) is much worse, with the same research forecasting that this is likely to fall by around 13% between 2010 and 2011 and 2019 and 2020.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So if it isn’t just down to inflation, it must be due to increased pupil numbers. Who are they?<\/p>\n

Research has also shown that education plays an important role in generating improved productivity and growth and this is also acknowledged in the government\u2019s own industrial strategy. It makes no sense then to actually disinvest in a \u201ckey pillar\u201d of the industrial strategy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Freezing overall expenditure at a record high is now disinvestment. I guess this is what happens when teachers are gifted final-salary pensions.<\/p>\n

And as we learn later:<\/p>\n

The author is correct to point out that per pupil spending is at least as important as the overall total. But the research mentioned above shows that even this was still at a historical high in 2015 and 2016 \u2013 the most recent complete school year. The same research shows that in real terms \u2013 allowing for inflation \u2013 per pupil spending has doubled since the 1997 to 1998 school year. It does predict that a freeze on total spending will lead to a real terms decrease in successive years, but this had not happened at time of writing.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Nor does it mean that the money is being spent wisely or in the most effective fashion by governments.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Even the fact page the unions link to doesn’t\u00a0do much to support their cause.<\/p>\n

And this video<\/a> is telling: it says one school is due to see a reduction in funding of \u00a32,350 per pupil. Either there is going to be a massive influx of\u00a0pupils coming from somewhere (and I suspect we all know where), or it’s being lost to inflation meaning they are receiving funding which would make Eton blush.<\/p>\n

So in summary: there are no cuts, and this is merely an attempt by teachers’ unions to\u00a0snaffle yet more taxpayer monies for themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some outfit campaigning against cuts to expenditure on schools has found its way onto my Facebook feed. Let’s take a look: The Government has cut school funding by \u00a32.8 billion since 2015. Between now and 2022, it wants to cut … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[45,20,42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4828,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions\/4828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}