Mario welcomes £14 billion extra investment for schools

The Prime Minister has announced that we are boosting schools with a record £14 billion, levelling up per pupil funding across the country so every child in Croydon has a world class education.

The cash boost will mean that every secondary school in Croydon will receive a minimum of £5,000 per pupil next year and every primary school will get a minimum of £4,000 per pupil from 2021-22, rising at least in line with inflation.

I am delighted that the cash boost will mean £700 million extra for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), so every pupil in Croydon can access the education that is right for them, and none are held back from reaching their potential.

In addition, the new funding will mean £400 million additional funding for further education and sixth form colleges in Croydon to train and teach our young people the skills they need for well-paid jobs in the modern economy.

The Prime Minister has also pledged to meet the £4.5 billion requirement for teachers’ pensions from outside the education budget. This means that every penny of the extra £14 billion will go straight to schools and delivering the best educational outcomes for our children.

Commenting, Mario said:

“I am delighted that the Prime Minister has delivered on his pledge to level up per pupil funding across the country so every child in Croydon has a world class education. It means a lot to me personally that SEND has been given the prominence it needs as my wife is a teacher in a local SEN school.

“Only Boris Johnson and the Conservatives can deliver the change people want, giving every child the best start and properly funding our schools – getting this country back on the road to a brighter future.”

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:

“When I became Prime Minster at the start of the summer, I promised to make sure every child receives a superb education - regardless of which school they attend, or where they grew up.

“Today I can announce the first step in delivering on that pledge – funding per pupil in primary and secondary schools will increase, and be levelled up across the entire country.

“We should not accept the idea that there can be “winners or losers” when it comes to our children’s futures. That’s why we are providing additional funding now and for the future for every school, with those historically underfunded receiving the greatest increase.

“My government will ensure all young people get the best possible start in life. That means the right funding, but also giving schools the powers they need to deal with bad behaviour and bullying so pupils continue to learn effectively”.

• The Prime Minister has announced that we are boosting schools with an extra £14 billion, levelling up per pupil funding across the country so every child has a world class education (Prime Minister’s Office, Press Release, 30 August 2019, link).

• We have announced £400 million additional funding for further education and sixth form colleges to train and teach our young people the skills they need for well-paid jobs in the modern economy (DfE/HMT, News story, 31 August 2019, link).

• The Prime Minister has also pledged to meet the £4.5 billion requirement for teachers’ pensions from outside the education budget. This means that every penny of the extra £14 billion will go straight to schools and delivering the best educational outcomes for our children.

The £14 billion funding boost will mean:

• Every school will get a real terms funding rise next year. In every part of the country, next year every school will see a real terms rise in their funding.
• Secondary schools – every secondary school will receive an increased minimum of £5,000 per pupil next year.
• Primary schools – every primary school will get a minimum of £3,750 from 2020-21 and £4,000 per pupil from 2021-22.
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities - £700 million extra for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in 2020-21, so every pupil can access the education that is right for them, and none are held back from reaching their potential.
• Further education - Further education and sixth form colleges will receive £400 million additional funding to train and teach our young people the skills they need for well-paid jobs in the modern economy. They will also get and extra £100m to fund the extra pensions provision which this year they had to fund from existing budgets.
• Historically under-funded areas prioritised – we will progress the implementation of our National Funding Formula, delivering promised gains in full for areas which have been historically under-funded.
• Increasing the schools budget to £52.2 billion by 2022-23 – the funding package for 5-16 schools includes £2.6 billion for 2020-21, £4.8 billion for 2021-22, and £7.1 billion for 2022-23 compared to 2019-20. This will bring the schools budget to £52.2 billion in 2022-23.

Under the Conservatives we’ve seen more children getting a better education:

• There has been a dramatic improvement in children’s reading making sure they are prepared for their future. England has risen to joint eighth place in the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, up from joint tenth in 2011 and the historic low of 19th under Labour. Thanks to our phonics reforms, 163,000 more six year olds are on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012 (DfE, Press Release, 28 March 2019, link; DfE, Press Release, 16 April 2019, link).
• Created 921,000 new school places since 2010 as part of the biggest expansion in school places in two generations. This means we are on track to deliver an extra one million school places nationwide in the decade to 2020 and reverse the reduction of 100,000 school places between 2004 and 2010 (DfE, Press Release, 7 December 2010, link).

Jeremy Corbyn cannot deliver the change people want:

• Labour would wreck the economy and only cause more delay and uncertainty on Brexit – meaning they couldn’t deliver on the issues people care about, like our schools. Jeremy Corbyn would borrow and waste billions more of taxpayers’ money, wrecking our strong economy and leaving less for our public services. Meanwhile he has confirmed he wants a second referendum, creating more chaos and uncertainty on Brexit and preventing us moving on to focus on what matters to people.
• Labour want to scrap academies and free schools, putting their ideology before what works for our children. Angela Rayner said: ‘We’ll start by immediately ending the Tories’ academy and free schools programmes. They neither improve standards nor empower staff or parents’ (Angela Rayner, Speech to Labour Party Conference 2018, link).
• Under Labour, we plummeted down the international league tables for school performance and it would happen again. Between 2000 and 2009, England fell from seventh to 25th in reading, eighth to 28th in maths, and fourth to 16th in science in the PISA league tables (DfE, Press Release, 7 December 2010, link).

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