Why is it only the right that gets angry about how state schools fail the poor?

shrug grammar school worked for me. No tutors, as my family were too poor (mum wiped arses in a care home, dad was a school caretaker). I was the first in my family (even my extended family) to go to Uni.

Maybe if there were more grammar schools, people wouldn't feel the need to tutor their kids? Or maybe offer free tutoring (as suggested above)?

Yes, the Pupil Premium was one of the lib dem manifesto pledges they managed to actually get included in the coalition agreement. I'm struggling to think of - oh, raising income tax threshold to 10k was another.

claig, I'm using the phrase 'pissing in the wind' to mean 'making a contribution which is dwarfed by the size of the task'. A couple of hours after school tuition is not the equivalent of six years at an expenisve prep.

Why did people vote for UKIP in such large numbers recently?
Because they wanted to register a vote against the system. the people swung to the right, away from the system which is left and progressive.

This is a quote from the article

"Now that Labour takes 80pc of its funds from the union, it seems to be on the side of the system, no longer on the side of those failed by the system."

But Labour has always taken most of its money from the unions. That hasn't changed. What has changed is that the left and leftist media and think tanks and charitable foundations etc are the system, that is why they don't want to change the system

Agree Claig - the wind farm industry is massively subsidised, and that's money that could be better spent on education. As for the 'charitable' status that private schools enjoy, I'd like to see them contributing far more than simply providing a couple of bursaries or allowing the state school plebs to play on the fields occasionally.

Yes, noblegiraffe, that was a good initiative and it was a shame that that was cut.

There was a pot of money for free one-one tuition for pupils that were underachieving in English or Maths. Ten free one hour sessions after school with a qualified teacher for pupils identified by their school.

Guess who cut that funding?

'But it's pissing in the wind really, isn't it?'

I don't think spending money on free tuition for children is pissing in the wind. It is a start and a move in the right direction.

What really is pissing in the wind, is all these think tanks and taxpayer funded experts advising more windfarms and windmills that end up pissing and blowing our taxpayer money in the wind and handing taxpayer subsidies to rich landowners.

Let's spend taxpayer money on poor children and education to give them a future for themselves and for us rather than handing taxpayer money to rich landowners.

Only in certain parts of the UK Noble

Oh, and wasn't the Pupil Premium for poor students down to the Lib Dems?

Labour started the academies program to help turn around failing schools.

Someone, somewhere is probably doing just that - I don't know, I don't live in Kent fortunately. But it's pissing in the wind really, isn't it?

Because TB had an absolute fixation with sending huge numbers to universities. The only way that he could do that was to make it easier for kids to go onto higher education, and the only way that could happen was to make it easier, rather than more difficult, for them to pass with grades that universities look for, ie lower the bar. I regularly sit on interview panels, and can assure anyone who doubts that literacy and numeracy levels are not improving.

On a societal level, education is not seen as the way out of poverty anymore.

'DrDolittle, I suggest you take a look at the many, many threads on here about how much people are spending on prep schools or tutoring for the 11+ before you suggest that as a leg-up for poor kids.'

Then why don't some of these charities and think tanks and trusts and home flippers and people who try and charge £12000 a month for asking questions, set up some charities that provide free tuition on weekends to poor children who can't afford tuition?

...and cutting the education budget is going to help the poorer students how exactly?

And that budget cut will hit the children with SN even more .

I don't think that the Left got things right but I doubt the Right have all the answers either.

DrDolittle, I suggest you take a look at the many, many threads on here about how much people are spending on prep schools or tutoring for the 11+ before you suggest that as a leg-up for poor kids.

Free schools won't change the issue of class sizes. And gove wants longer school terms?

I don't think the left are in establishment. The government is currently of the right and they only listen to those of the right.

The issue is that people tinker - but we need something radical. We need to celebrate and champion doing well at school, not just make people good enough.

scarlettsmummy actually literacy/numeracy rates have remained fairly constant post-war, drifting upwards if anything.

Studies here and here for example.

Grammar schools wouldn't cost more, would they? That would increase the chances of the poor getting to a good university. But no politician seems willing to legislate for more of them, despite the demand (e.g Kent grammar schools expanding, using a loophole to do it).

'If the "right" were so concerned then why don't they make state schools more like private schools? Smaller class sizes, shorter terms? Eh Gove?'

Maybe free schools are the first step in that direction.

'Balls. I consider myself of the left and think that schools are terrible for those less well off. '

It's not leftists like you, it's the ones in government think tanks and charitable trusts and taxpayer funded positions on taxpayer salaries above £100,000. They are the establishment and they hold tight to their status quo and don't want to rock any boats in case their taxpayer funded roles disappear.

Didn't the attainment gap widen under Blair/Brown?

Dumbing down has occurred, and it was ideological and it was hidden by grade inflation and trumpeting how well the left had done, but when the deceptive veil was lifted all that remained was a bag of bones and thousands of A* grades.

Balls. I consider myself of the left and think that schools are terrible for those less well off.

If the "right" were so concerned then why don't they make state schools more like private schools? Smaller class sizes, shorter terms? Eh Gove?

I'll tell you why - because they don't want to spend the money as they love the elitism.

That's very interesting. Totally agree. I have no idea why this is the case but it does indeed appear to be so. Fifty years ago children growing up in real poverty all left school reading and writing, and being educated in huge classes. What has changed?