Impact of new cuts to state school funding

[Novotelchok]

There are a lot of headlines just now about further cuts to state school funding - through inadequate central government funding of pay rises & NI increases, and pupil premium not going up enough. I'm not in England so only know what's in the papers - I'd be very interested to hear how this is impacting schools/ children / families.

I'm not a journalist, just an interested parent & a voter who is pretty worried by what seems to be Austerity 2.0.

Thanks @twistyizzy I knew I’d seen this suggestion (removing ability to appeal EHCP refusals) somewhere and had struggled to find it.

It sounds like it is just a suggestion at this stage rather than being official Labour policy or included in the Schools Bill.

That said, it’s clear from the Guardian article that not just is the whole EHCP regime on the brink of collapse but that it alone could bring down a number of Local Authorities (quite apart from rising care costs and everything else).

So unless Labour is going to come up with an absolutely enormous funding plan for SEND (spoiler alert: it’s not, too busy spending on defence), the they are going to have to massively pare back the already woefully inadequate system.

It’s beyond depressing.

Aside from the impact on the children/young people (and their families) what on earth is going to become of them when they grow up, having received a wholly deficient education?

Ah well, it’s not like it’s Labour’s problem as they’ll be out on their ears by then anyway.

Labour are both clueless and negligent where education (and pretty much everything else!) is concerned.

I was intending to use private schools from Reception year in Sept 2025. I could afford VAT but don’t want to pay more tax to Labour and don’t trust what else they’ll do to attack private schools in the coming years. I’ll move from using state to private sector once they are removed from government.

In the meantime this creates a huge bill for the taxpayer and effectively gives me a taxpayer funded pension subsidy.

Annual cost to taxpayer:

DS state school place 7k
No VAT from me. 4k
No income tax from money I previously intended to use for fees. Instead of using 40k earnings and paying 20k income tax and 20k fees I’ll now put 40k into my pension.

Net result is taxpayer is 31k worse off for every year I use a state school of which I get given 20k of it in tax relief.

31k annual bill for the taxpayer vs 0 had they not introduced such an awful tax.

Great work Labour. I hope those in support of the policy are happy to work more to fund the additional 20k tax relief I’ll now be receiving every year.

Well you'd better hope your kid's education doesn't suffer too much in state education given all these further cuts that are coming, and that you don't mind them e.g. not having a teacher.

I’ve made sure I’ve got access to an excellent state first school. I guess I’ve also taken a place away from a lower earning family. You can add that to this of unintended consequences of the VAT policy.

Excellent state schools aren't funded any better than the rest.

But you continue to think that your little protest is affecting anything other than your child,

Ah but ones with cohorts of more affluent parents can get extra money from PTA + donations etc. Just look at some of the top state schools in the country where the politicians eg Starmer etc send their kids.

Yeah, and I can also look at the private schools and the donations they get from their PTAs.

People trying to kid themselves that state education and private education are interchangeable can just jog on.

Our indy school doesn't have PTA or donations from parents because they already pay fees.
According to Sutton Trust the top 100 state schools in UK are no different in their cohorts than majority of indy schools.

Or this

Neither of the things that you have posted back up your claim.

But regardless, it is always astonishing how the reams of posters who come on here claiming that they are putting their kid in a state school to spite the Labour government all managed to get their kid into one of the best state schools in the country where the private school they had originally picked out was one of the crap ones so it's absolutely not a case of sacrificing their child on the altar of their ideology.

In terms of school deficits - can a state school go bust? Is that possible?

It is not all about DfE funding. Full parental engagement and voluntary funding goes a long way. We researched a lot of schools to find somewhere suitable. Other would be PS parents have done the same. A small village school full of parents who were willing to pay 20k pa is likely to create a favourable learning environment.

It’s not a protest. It is simply being pragmatic. I’ll make sure my DS gets a fantastic education. I and others will happily provide additional funds for the school. If we require any support that the school can’t offer then I’ll sort that out too.

Oh I thought you were spending all the extra money on your pension. Now you're using it to prop up the state school (thanks for that, we don't even have to wait for the VAT to filter through then) and hire tutors for your DC.

Well, I guess they could have a deficit so big they can't pay staff and have to shut? I think quite a few run in a deficit and will be looking to cut costs further from April.

I have options if I need them. Hopefully I don’t and can benefit from the huge taxpayer funded pension subsidy. Either way a few thousand pounds from multiple parents to support the school is a drop in the ocean vs PS fees and won’t materially impact pension contributions.

I think LAs have propped up deficits in the past, but they haven’t any money left to do that now, so not sure what they will do. No point doing it as loan as school wouldn’t be able to raise extra funds to repay.

It’s a disaster

Our LA is pretty much rationing EHCPs

Why do you find this astonishing? Parents with the ability to "spite" the government presumably could afford private tuition even with VAT, like Silentdream. But they will do so only if they can get their kids into an adequate state alternative which, for them, likely means a very good state school, indeed.

As for how common this actually is, well, let's not confuse the frequency of posts on MN with the true distribution of the population. Because then 75% of children would have CAT4 scores of 125 or above.

Currently work in a school. Been told finances are bad. We are very very stretched. Affecting behaviour in pupils and also stress levels on teachers which was already very poor!! This is terrible news.

@Silentdream - it is fine what you are doing. Loads of state school parents have been doing exactly that for many years. Just try and volunteer a bit by reading with the kids, join the PTA and possibly parent governor roles. So you have some oversight of the finances of the school.

I’m sure state schools can strip back their offerings in the same way independents have. If not, they can create super schools by conjoining the ones that can’t afford to run themselves. 🙄 How could people not see that the initial taxing of education was just the beginning?!

That’s exactly what I’ll be doing.

Astonishing, as in I don't believe it, this constant stream of tediously similar posts about how private school parents will now be diving into pools of money like Scrooge McDuck while their kid goes to a state school that is identical to the private school despite being funded thousands of pounds less per pupil.

Anyway, the poster has now decided that they'll be pouring money into the state system to make up for these latest cuts to state education so we're all winning.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/pupil-premium-3-in-4-schools-say-lack-of-funding-hampers-support/

In terms of school deficits - can a state school go bust? Is that possible?

Some primaries in London have closed or merged with others as there aren't enough children in many boroughs.

Well already up and down the country children are being taught by unqualified teachers or people who are not good enough. It’s going to get worse. The good teachers will all be driven out in the next 5 years and there is no one coming through to replace them.

It is making me so angry that no political party wants to invest in our children and their education. Constant lies and false promises. What is it going to take for them to listen to teachers and Headteachers who are saying the situation is unsustainable and at crisis point!?