News Date: Tuesday 6th July 2004
Loughton: Conservatives launch 'Right to Choose' for parents
Policies announced to improve schools in Worthing and Adur
Public services will be the battleground of the next election, and South East Conservatives have fired the first shots on improving schools. Tim Loughton MP for East Worthing and Shoreham this week endorsed the ?Right to Choose? for parents announced by Conservatives to improve Worthing and Adur?s schools and make it easier for residents across Worthing and Adur to have a better and more diverse range of schools available to them.
Under a Conservative Government, parents will be able to take the money that the taxpayer spends on their child?s education to any school, whether state or independent, as long as no additional charge is made to parents. Conservatives will increase spending on schools by a third and in order to stimulate an immediate growth in the number of good school places, we will establish a Schools Expansion Fund to provide significant help and incentives to all schools, new or existing, which wish to provide additional places.
Tim Loughton explained,
'In our local schools like Davisons and King's Manor, we rely more than ever on the hard work of teachers, sometimes battling against worsening discipline and truancy, but always battling against Whitehall bureaucracy. Increasingly over-worked teachers are leaving the profession, worn down by the over-bearing pressure from Whitehall. That?s not their fault. It?s the fault of the system.
'Our proposals for a 'Right to Choose' will mean that we will trust teachers in Worthing and Adur to set priorities for their pupils free from central targets. Good schools will be able to grow to meet the demand of local parents if they wish and parents will be able to choose the school that best suits their child, not be told where to send their child by a restrictive system. Our policy will mean excellence and choice for everyone, not the few.?
Our plans to increase the capacity of secondary school places by 7.5 per cent across the country means that across the South East there will be the equivalent of 38 new schools.
Notes to Editors
The full policy document and policy summary is available online at: http://www.righttochoose.com
The proposals, which apply to all of England, include:
The Right to Choose
- The parents of all school-age children ? at primary, secondary and sixth-form levels ? will have the Right to Choose the best school for their child. Any family may apply to any State school: local councils will not decide admissions. Parents will also be entitled to send their child to an independent school which can offer a good education for the cost of a State school place ? which will be around ?5,500 on average by 2007-08.
- The Right to Choose will impose competitive pressure on under-performing schools to raise their game, or lose their pupils.
- Schools which persistently fail their pupils will be taken over by new management ? or lose their right to taxpayer funding.
Freedom for Professionals
- Conservatives will consolidate funding streams so that money follows the pupil ? greatly simplifying the financing of schools.
- We will scrap targets on schools imposed from Whitehall.
- We will end the Surplus Places Rule, so that good schools are able to expand to meet local demand.
- We will abolish Appeals Panels so that head teachers are once again in charge of discipline policy and are able to establish their authority in the classroom.
- Heads and governors will be able to allocate their own budgets and vary the pay and conditions of staff.
The Right to Supply
- Any good school - charitable or commercial - that can offer a good education for the same cost as a State school will be entitled to receive taxpayer funding.
- Schools that receive taxpayer funding will not be allowed to charge parents fees.
- Conservatives will invest to reform. Our spending plans provide for an extra ?15 billion a year to be available for schools by 2009-10 beyond the spending we will inherit from Labour. This will enable us to pay for the extra capacity that will make choice a reality ? including a School Expansion Fund to pay for the equivalent of 260 new secondary schools.
The expansion of school places means that there will be the following equivalent expansion of schools in each region:
RegionIncrease equivalent number of schools
North West16
North East36
Yorkshire and the Humber25
East Midlands24
West Midlands31
East of England32
London31
South East38
South West25
ENDS
